Religious extremism is also Jewish
We do not, as Arabs, know much about the extremist Jewish religious people, and we are unaware of their customs and imposed traditions, and what is permissible or forbidden for them. We can, of course, conduct research to better understand them, especially since Israel was originally based on a Torah religious idea that states that they, the Jews, are the "chosen people of God," thus superior to the rest of humanity. While their religious teachings focus on the idea of chosenness, holiness, and superiority, the Zionists used religion as a justification for the seizure and occupation of the land in Palestine.
We do not know the extremist religious people and their violence, bigotry, and racism. Whenever I see the settlers viciously attacking the defenseless Palestinian citizens in the West Bank, with the support of the Israeli army, to drive them out of their homes and seize and occupy them, as their ancestors did in all of Palestine, I say to myself. Here, a particular Israeli film comes to mind, "Kadosh" (1999) by the Israeli director Amos Gitai, who was the first to film in the Mea Shearim neighborhood (in Jerusalem) with its ancient architectural design similar to the neighborhoods where Jews from Central Europe lived in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. The neighborhood is inhabited by an extremist religious community living according to laws far removed from modernity, entirely based on the rulings of deeply knowledgeable rabbis in the study of sacred texts. The residents refrain from watching television, and they are against any form of images or photography.
The story of the film revolves around the lives of two sisters who are bound by a strong love relationship: the elder, Rivka, who is married, and the younger, Malka, who is single. Rivka's husband, Meir, who has devoted his life to studying the Torah, begins his day with a prayer of blessing and gratitude to God, because he was not created female! He distances himself from the impure female gender, due to the monthly menstrual cycle, and the lowly material world embodied by women. And because they possess this material nature, it is their duty to provide material life for men who, being pure by nature, must dedicate their lives to spiritual activities and the study and interpretation of the word of God. The precise definition of a woman's duties is explained by the great rabbi in charge of the Talmudic school, where Meir studies. He says: a woman's function is to earn the family's livelihood, maintain the home, and cook. However, above all, the most important thing is the necessity of procreation, in order to increase the chosen people's offspring! In this way, the rabbi also reveals a political project, based on granting demographic advancement to the extremist Orthodox over the secular, non-believing population, so that its members do not rule the land of Israel.
Because Meir's marriage to Rivka, whom he loves, has not borne fruit for ten years, meaning they have not had children, the senior rabbi decides that the wife is barren, and that the husband should divorce her and marry a young woman. As for the younger Malka, her tragedy is different, as she is promised to assist the rabbi, while being in love with Yosef, who was rejected by the community because he wants to become a professional musician. She decides to leave her closed community and live her life freely outside of it.
What will be the fate of the two sisters? Will Rivka succumb to the inevitable and accept the fate chosen for her, moving to live in a room away from her husband, where she will wither slowly, experiencing loneliness and loss, ultimately leading to her death, while Malka rebels against her surroundings, cuts her hair short, and escapes to meet her beloved Yosef and live with him.
Returning to our subject, it was strange that when I searched for any trace of the movie on Google to retrieve some details, and then for articles written in Arabic about it, I didn't find anything...