Groups in Context: An Ontology of a Muslim Headscarf in a Nazareth Catholic School and a Sephardic Ultra-Orthodox Student in Immanuel

Michael Karayanni

doi:10.1111/lsi.12157

Groups in Context: An Ontology of a Muslim Headscarf in a Nazareth Catholic School and a Sephardic Ultra-Orthodox Student in Immanuel

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 December 2018

Michael Karayanni

Article contents

Abstract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Abstract

Two separate Israeli Supreme Court cases permitted a Christian school in Nazareth to exclude a Muslim student who insisted on coming to school with her headscarf, and denied an Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox school in Immanuel permission to exclude Sephardic students. Intriguingly, the Israeli Supreme Court reached these apparently contradictory holdings using the same liberal ideals of equality and commonality. The article analyzes both holdings to show that the Court's resolutions cannot stand on their own terms. To reconcile these outcomes, we must locate the groups involved within the religious and ethnic power structure in Israel and determine the legal and social significance of defining the group as a minority or a majority. In general, we should be more tolerant of exclusionary measures practiced by a minority than those practiced by the majority. Ultimately, a constitutional evaluation committed to basic individual freedoms cannot refer to the individual without her or his group.

Type: Articles
Information: Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , Fall 2016 , pp. 973 - 1005

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/lsi.12157 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Al‐Haj, Majid. 1995. Education, Empowerment and Control: The Case of the Arabs in Israel. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar

Arneson, Richard J., and Shapiro, Ian. 1996. Democratic Autonomy and Religious Freedom: A Critique of Wisconsin v. Yoder . In NOMOS XXXVIII: Political Order, ed. Ian, Shapiro and Russell, Hardin, 365–411. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar

Aronson, Ori, and Shoshana, Avi. 2013. Be‐Ikvot Parashat Immanuel: Mishpat, Tarbut ve‐Hayei Yom‐Yom [In the Wake of the Immanuel Affair: Law, Culture, and Daily Life]. Tarbut Demokratit 15:7–12.Google Scholar

Bagni, Bruce N. 1979. Discrimination in the Name of the Lord: A Critical Evaluation of Discrimination by Religious Organizations. Columbia Law Review 79:1514–49.Google Scholar

Bakircioglu, Onder. 2007. The Application of the Margin of Appreciation Doctrine in Freedom of Expression and Public Morality Cases. German Law Journal 8:711–33.Google Scholar

Barry, Brian M. 2001. Culture and Equality: An Egalitarian Critique of Multiculturalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar

Barzilai, Gad. 2000. Fantasies of Liberalism and Liberal Jurisprudence: State Law, Politics and Israeli Arab‐Palestinian Community. Israel Law Review 34:425–51.Google Scholar

Barzilai, Gad. 2003. Communities and the Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar

Bass, Mordechai. 2008. Report to Director‐General of the Education and Culture Ministry (March 2, 2008). In author's possession (in Hebrew).Google Scholar

Benavot, Aaron, and Resh, Nura. 2003. Education, Governance, School Autonomy, and Curriculum Implementation: A Comparative Study of Arab and Jewish Schools in Israel. Journal of Curriculum Studies 35:171–96.Google Scholar

Ben‐Shemesh, Yaacov. 2013. Parashat Immanuel—ha‐Dilemma shel Shas [The Immanuel Affair—The Dilemma of Shas]. Tarbut Demokratit 15:13–30.Google Scholar

Betts, Robert Benton. 1978. Christians in the Arab East: A Political Study, rev. ed. London: SPCK.Google Scholar

Bialer, Uri. 2005. Cross on the Star of David: The Christian World in Israel's Foreign Policy, 1948–1967. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar

Bielefeldt, Heiner. 2000. “Western” Versus “Islamic” Human Rights Conceptions?: A Critique of Cultural Essentialism in the Discussion of Human Rights. Political Theory 28:90–121.Google Scholar

Bitton, Yifat. 2011. Mizrahim ba‐Mishpat: Ha‐”Ein” ke‐”Yesh” [Mizrahis and the Law: Absence as Existence]. Mishpatim 41:455–516.Google Scholar

Bitton, Yifat. 2012. Finally, Our Own Brown! (?). Israel Law Review 45:267–89.Google Scholar

Blank, Yishai. 2012. Localising Religion in a Jewish State. Israel Law Review 45:291–321.Google Scholar

Blass, Nachum. 2012. Trends in the Development of the Education System. In State of the Nation Report: Society, Economy and Policy in Israel 2011–2012, ed. Dan, Ben‐David, 229–84. Jerusalem: Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel.Google Scholar

Central Bureau of Statistics. 2014. Statistical Abstract of Israel No. 65. Jerusalem: Central Bureau of Statistics.Google Scholar

Dagovitz, Alan. 2004. When Choice Does Not Matter: Political Liberalism, Religion and the Faith School Debate. Journal of Philosophy of Education 38:165–80.Google Scholar

Dahan Kalev, Henriette, and Ferber Tzurel, Ahikam. 2013. Akedat ha‐Yalda: Pe'ulat ha‐Seruv ha‐Politi u‐Mashma'uyoteia be‐Parashat Immanuel [The Sacrifice of the Girl: The Political Resistance Act and its Meanings in the Immanuel Affair]. Tarbut Demokratit 15:61–86.Google Scholar

David, Hanna. 2001. A Minority Within a Minority: Mathematics, Science and Technology Studies Among Israeli and Arabic Female Students. In Conference Proceedings: Gender and Research, Brussels, 8–9 November 2001, ed. Linda Maxwell, Karen Slavin, and Kerry Young, 248–55. Brussels: European Commission.Google Scholar

Deckha, Maneesha. 2009. The Paradox of the Cultural Defense: Gender and Cultural Othering in Canada. In Multicultural Jurisprudence: Comparative Perspectives on the Cultural Defense, ed. Marie‐Claire, Foblets and Alison, Dundes Renteln, 261–84. Oxford: Hart.Google Scholar

Deveaux, Monique. 2006. Gender and Justice in Multicultural Liberal States. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Dorfman, Avihay. 2013. Kibud ha‐Adam ve‐ha‐Mishpat ha‐Hukati ha‐Yisra'eli [Respect for Persons and Constitutional Law in Israel]. Iyunei Mishpat 36:111–61.Google Scholar

Dundes Renteln, Alison. 2004. The Cultural Defense. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Eisenberg, Avigail, and Spinner‐Halev, Jeff. 2005. Introduction. In Minorities Within Minorities: Equality, Rights and Diversity, ed. Avigail, Eisenberg and Jeff, Spinner‐Halev, 1–18. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Ely, John Hart. 1974. The Constitutionality of Reverse Racial Discrimination. University of Chicago Law Review 41:723–41.Google Scholar

Fernández, Christain. 2010. Education and Diversity: Two Stories of a Liberal Dilemma. Public Affairs Quarterly 24:279–96.Google Scholar

Friedman, Menachem. 1993. The Ultra‐Orthodox and Israeli Society. In Whither Israel?: The Domestic Challenges, ed. Keith, Kyle and Joel, Peters, 177–201. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs in association with I. B. Tauris.Google Scholar

Galston, William A. 2002. Liberal Pluralism: The Implications of Value Pluralism for Political Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Goldstein, Stephen. 1992. Israel: A Secular or a Religious State? St. Louis University Law Journal 36:143–61.Google Scholar

Goldstein, Stephen. 1998 . Multiculturalism, Parental Choice and Traditional Values: A Comment on Religious Education in Israel. In Children's Rights and Traditional Values, ed. Gillian, Douglas and Leslie, Sebba, 118–33. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar

Green, Leslie. 1998. Rights of Exit. Legal Theory 4:165–85.Google Scholar

Greenawalt, Kent. 1998. Freedom of Association and Religious Association. In Freedom of Association, ed. Amy, Gutmann, 109–44. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar

Griffiths, John. 1986. What is Legal Pluralism? Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 24:1–55.Google Scholar

Gutmann, Amy. 1999. Democratic Education, rev. ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar

Hill Kay, Herma. 1980. The Use of Comparative Impairment to Resolve True Conflicts: An Evaluation of the California Experience. California Law Review 68:577–617.Google Scholar

Ichilov, Orit, and Elias Mazawi, André. 1996. Between State and Church: Life‐History and a French Catholic School in Jaffa. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Peter Lang.Google Scholar

Jiryis, Sabri. 1976. The Arabs in Israel. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar

Joppke, Christian. 2007. State Neutrality and Islamic Headscarf Law in France and Germany. Theory and Society 36:313–42.Google Scholar

Karayanni, Michael M. 2007. Living in a Group of One's Own: Normative Implications Related to the Private Nature of the Religious Accommodations for the Palestinian‐Arab Minority in Israel. UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law 6:1–46 Google Scholar

Karayanni, Michael M. 2012. Two Concepts of Group Rights for the Palestinian‐Arab Minority Under Israel's Constitutional Definition as a “Jewish and Democratic” State. International Journal of Constitutional Law 10:304–39.Google Scholar

Kateb, George. 1998. The Value of Association. In Freedom of Association, ed. Amy, Gutmann, 35–63. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar

Kelly, Paul. 2002. Introduction: Between Culture and Equality. In Multiculturalism Reconsidered: “Culture and Equality” and its Critics, ed. Paul, Kelly, 1–17. Malden, MA: Polity Press.Google Scholar

Kennedy, Randall. 1986. Persuasion and Distrust: A Comment on the Affirmative Action Debate. Harvard Law Review 99:1327–46.Google Scholar

Kiviorg, Merilin. 2010. Collective Religious Autonomy Under the European Convention on Human Rights: The UK Jewish Free School Case in International Perspective. EUI Working Paper MWP 2010/40.Google Scholar

Kleinberger, Aharon F. 1969. Society, Schools and Progress in Israel. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar

Kymlicka, Will. 1995. Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Kymlicka, Will. 2001. Politics in the Vernacular: Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Citizenship. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Laborde, Cécile. 2008. Critical Republicanism: The Hijab Controversy and Political Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Laden, Anthony Simon, and Owen, David. 2007. Introduction. In Multiculturalism and Political Theory, ed. Anthony, Simon Laden and David, Owen, 1–22. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Landau, Jacob M. 1993. The Arab Minority in Israel, 1967–1991. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Lehmann, David. 2005. The Politics of Ethnic Enclaves. Jewish Quarterly 52 (4): 41–45.Google Scholar

Lehmann, David. 2012. Israel: State Management of Religion or Religious Management of the State. Citizenship Studies 16:1029–43.Google Scholar

Lehmann, David, and Siebzehner, Batia. 2006. Remaking Israeli Judaism: The Challenge of Shas. London: Hurst.Google Scholar

Leon, Nissim. 2013. Ha‐Situ'atsiya ha‐Mizrahit ba‐Hevra ha‐Haredit be‐Yisra'el ve‐ha‐Tguva la [The Mizrahi Situation in Israel's Ultra‐Orthodox Society and Reactions to It]. Tarbut Demokratit 15:161–92.Google Scholar

Levinson, Meira. 1997. Liberalism Versus Democracy? Schooling Private Citizens in the Public Square. British Journal of Political Science 27 (3): 333–60.Google Scholar

Levinson, Meira. 1999. Liberalism, Pluralism, and Political Education: Paradox or Paradigm. Oxford Review of Education 25:39–58.Google Scholar

Levy, Jacob. 1997. Classifying Cultural Rights. In Nomos XXXIX: Ethnicity and Group Rights, ed. Ian, Shapiro and Will, Kymlicka, 22–66. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar

Lipkin, Robert Justin. 1996. Religious Justification in the American Communitarian Republic. Capital University Law Review 25:765–88.Google Scholar

Louër, Laurence. 2007. To Be an Arab in Israel. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar

Lupo, Yaakov. 2004. Shas de‐Lita: Ha‐Hishtaltut ha‐Lita'it al Bnei Tora mi‐Marokko [Shas de‐Lita: The Lithuanian Takeover of Moroccan Yeshiva Students]. Tel‐Aviv: Ha‐Kibbutz ha‐Me'uhad.Google Scholar

Macedo, Stephen. 1995. Liberal Civic Education and Religious Fundamentalism: The Case of God v. John Rawls . Ethics 105:468–96.Google Scholar

Macedo, Stephen. 2000. Diversity and Distrust: Civil Education in a Multicultural Democracy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar

Maoz, Asher. 2006. Religious Education in Israel. University of Detroit Mercy Law Review 83:679–728.Google Scholar

Mar'i, Sami Khalil. 1978. Arab Education in Israel. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar

Mar'i, Sami Khalil. 1985. The Future of Palestinian Arab Education in Israel. Journal of Palestine Studies 14:52–73.Google Scholar

Mautner, Menachem. 2011. Law and the Culture of Israel. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

McCrudden, Christopher. 2011. Multiculturalism, Freedom of Religion, Equality and the British Constitution: The JFS Case Considered. International Journal of Constitutional Law 9:200–29.Google Scholar

McDonough, Kevin. 1998. Can the Liberal State Support Cultural Identity Schools? American Journal of Education 106:463–99.Google Scholar

McGahern, Una. 2011. Palestinian Christians in Israel: State Attitudes Towards Non‐Muslims in a Jewish State. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar

Okin, Susan Moller. 1999. Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? In Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? ed. Joshua, Cohen et al., 7–24. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar

Okun, Barbara S., and Friedlander, Dov. 2005. Educational Stratification Among Arabs and Jews in Israel: Historical Disadvantages, Discrimination and Opportunity. Population Studies 59:163–80.Google Scholar

Perry‐Hazan, Lotem. 2013. Ha‐Zekhut le‐Hinukh: Kavim le‐Dmuta be‐Idan shel Mahapekha Hukatit [The Right to Education in the Constitutional Revolution Era]. Mishpat ve‐Asakim 16:151–233.Google Scholar

Raday, Frances. 2005. Women's Human Rights: Dichotomy Between Religion and Secularism in Israel. Israel Affairs 11:78–94.Google Scholar

Raz, Joseph. 1994. Multiculturalism: A Liberal Perspective. Dissent 41:67–79.Google Scholar

Rubenfeld, Jed. 1997. Affirmative Action. Yale Law Journal 107:427–72.Google Scholar

Rubin Peled, Alisa. 2001. Debating Islam in the Jewish State: The Development of Policy Toward Islamic Institutions in Israel. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar

Rubin Peled, Alisa. 2009. Shari'a Under Challenge: The Political History of Islamic Legal Institutions in Israel. Middle East Journal 63:241–59.Google Scholar

Sa'ar, Amalia. 1998. Carefully on the Margins: Christian Palestinians in Haifa Between Nation and State. American Ethnologist 25:215–39.Google Scholar

Sandel, Michael J. 1998. Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Shafir, Gershon, and Peled, Yoav. 2002. Being Israeli: The Dynamics of Multiple Citizenship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Shavit, Yossi. 1990. Segregation, Tracking, and the Educational Attainments of Minorities: Arabs and Oriental Jews in Israel. American Sociological Review 55:115–26.Google Scholar

Shmueli, Benjamin. 2013. Hafrada Mashpila ba‐Hinukh ha‐Haredi: Hebetim Neziki'im u‐Shikulei Mediniyut be‐Ikvot Baga”tz 1067/08 Amutat “No'ar ke‐Halakha” n. Misrad ha‐Hinukh [Humiliating Segregation in the Ultra‐Orthodox Educational System: Tort Law Aspects and Policy Considerations in the Wake of HCJ 1067/08 Amutat “No'ar ke‐Halakha” v. Ministry of Education]. Tarbut Demokratit 15:265–315.Google Scholar

Shoshana, Avi, and Yona, Ginsberg. 2013. Ha‐Merhav ha‐Sammuy mi‐Ayn: Heterotopiya Haredit be‐Immanuel [Invisible Space: Ultra‐Orthodox Heterotopia in Immanuel]. Tarbut Demokratit 15:239–64.Google Scholar

Siebzehner, Batia, and Lehmann, David. 2008. Embracing Segregation: The Rise of a Religious Educational System in Israel (SHAS). Cuadernos Judaicos 25:23–35.Google Scholar

Spann, Girardeau A. 1995. Affirmative Action and Discrimination. Howard Law Journal 39:1–94.Google Scholar

Spinner‐Halev, Jeff. 2000. Surviving Diversity: Religion and Democratic Citizenship. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar

Spinner‐Halev, Jeff. 2012. Discrimination Within Religious Schools. Journal of Law, Religion & State 1:45–59.Google Scholar

Stolzenberg, Nomi Maya. 1993. “He Drew a Circle That Shut Me Out”: Assimilation, Indoctrination, and the Paradox of Liberal Education. Harvard Law Review 106:581–667.Google Scholar

Stolzenberg, Nomi Maya, and Myers, David N. 1992. Community, Constitution and Culture: The Case of the Jewish Kehilah. University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 25:633–70.Google Scholar

Stopler, Gila. 2009. Me'ahorei ha‐Re'ala—Hatalat Hagbalot al Hatayat Kissuy‐Rosh le‐Nashim be‐Medinot Liberaliyot [Behind the Veil—Restrictions on Wearing Head Coverings by Women in Liberal States]. Mishpat u‐Mimshal 12:191–226.Google Scholar

Tilly, John J. 1998. The Problem for Normative Cultural Relativism. Ratio Juris 11:272–90.Google Scholar

Tsimhoni, Daphne. 2002. The Christians in Israel: Aspects of Integration and the Search for Identity of a Minority Within a Minority. In Middle Eastern Minorities and Diasporas, ed. Moshe, Maoz and Gabriel, Sheffer, 124–52. Portland, OR: Sussex Academic Press.Google Scholar

Wallach Scott, Joan. 2010. The Politics of the Veil. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar

Young, Iris Marion. 1990. Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).Google Scholar

Christian Education South Africa v. Minister of Education, 2000(4) SA 757 (CC) (South Africa).Google Scholar

CA 294/91 Hevrat Kadisha v. Kastenbaum, 47(2) PD 464 (1992) (Israel).Google Scholar

HCJ 1067/08 Amutat No'ar Kehalakha v. Ministry of Education (August 6, 2009). Nevo Electronic Database (by subscription) (Israel).Google Scholar

HCJ 1067/08 Amutat No'ar Kehalakha v. Ministry of Education (May 17, 2010; June 15, 2010; September 14, 2010), Nevo Electronic Database (by subscription) (Israel).Google Scholar

HCJ 4298/93 Mona Jabareen v. Ministry of Education, 42(2) PD 221 (1993) (Israel).Google Scholar

HCJ 7793/05 Bar‐Ilan University v. National Labor Court (January 31, 2011). Nevo Electronic Database (by subscription) (Israel).Google Scholar

HCJ 8140/13 Ornan v. State of Israel (December 9, 2013). Nevo Electronic Database (by subscription) (Israel).Google Scholar

LabApp 515754‐08‐10 Nimri v. Schmidt Girls School (February 1, 2011). Nevo Electronic Database (by subscription) (Israel).Google Scholar

Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972).Google Scholar