See earlier DU link on same subject
Police fear mass Haredi protests over segregated West Bank schoolUltra-Orthodox Jews rally round parents jailed for defying Israeli court rulingMore than 100,000 ultra-Orthodox men marched through Jerusalem to show their support. "They are going to jail with joy," said Barry Dubin, 28. "We ultra-Orthodox parents will not cave in to the courts."
The parents are Ashkenazi, originating from Europe, and are in a long-running battle to have their daughters educated separately from Sephardi girls originating from north Africa and the Middle East.
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Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox community has swollen to a third of the Jewish population, assisted by a high birthrate and departure of thousands of secular residents. The secular population is increasingly resentful that its taxes support welfare benefits for the ultra-Orthodox, who reject paid work in favour of religious study.
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"The ultra-Orthodox community is getting stronger and stronger," said Yitzhak Brudny, a political scientist at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. "The tensions between the religious and secular communities have become especially pronounced. It's both a class war and a cultural war. The ultra-Orthodox are dirt poor. Among secular Israelis and moderate Orthodox Jews, they are seen basically as parasites. And they have no desire to integrate with other communities."
Serious question, if Ashkenazi and Sephardic groups cannot live in harmony in Israel, how can either group hope to live in harmony with Christians or Muslims or Hindus or Buddhist etc.?