Australia, NZ and worldwide Jewish news that matters
Israel’s President Shimon Peres has received a reply from the Secretary General of the Council of Europe seeking his intervention in a move by the Council recommending the banning of ritual circumcision.
Thorbjorn Jagland’s reply :
Click here to read President Peres’s letter…
Comments received without a full name will not be considered
Email addresses are NEVER published! All comments are moderated. J-Wire will publish considered comments by people who provide a real name and email address. Comments that are abusive, rude, defamatory or which contain offensive language will not be published
Nov-21 7:30pm SBS World Movies: The Last Vermeer
While Joseph Piller, a Dutch Jew, was fighting in the Resistance during the Second World War, the debonair art connoisseur Han van Meegeren was selling Dutch art to Hermann Goring and other Nazis. Read more
Dec-29 11:20pm SBS-TV: Uri Geller’s Secret Treasures
Uri Geller, the man who bends spoons, reads minds, and can stop your watch. Read more
Apr-25 11:45pm SBS-TV: Auschwitz – One Day
This documentary tells the story of a typical day in 1944 in the ‘death factory’ at Auschwitz from the viewpoint of victims – but it also allows insights into the mindset of the perpetrators. Read more
The European Convention on Human Rights also cites the need to protect bodily integrity and to protect all people equally regardless of age, gender, or religion.
Circumcision alters sex dramatically. The only person with the ethical standign to say yea or nay to non-therapeutic genital reduction surgery is the rational informed adult owner of the genitals.
Fortunately, Jagland does not get the last word on this.
Male circumcision as a Jewish religious ritual will inevitably be replaced by something symbolic that includes baby girls eventually some time. It is the last barbaric ritual that has not yet been replaced by symbolic ritual. This probably applies to Muslim ritual too. The important point is it should come from INSIDE the community and NOT BE IMPOSED by government from outside.
Ruth Barnett, London UK
Speaker challenging prejudice and racism
Contemptible weasel words: at no point does Jagland repudiate the Council’s position on circumcision. Circumcision is the covenant of Jews with the faith of Abraham. Impeding that is antisemitic, an ancient European practice.
When the higly moral Council of Europe raises its voice against the oppression of women in the mohammedan ghettos of Europe, of female genital mutilation in mohammedan regimes, or the second class status of women under sharia or the abhorrent practice of child brides or for that matter the sadistic blwoing up and electrocuting of whales by Norway, I’ll hold them in less contemp than I now do.
Paul, if you read the resolution you will find that indeed it raises its voice against female genital mutilation, and also against genital normalization surgeries for intesex children -which is nothing but female genital mutilation at the hands of physicians.
The resolution takes into consideration children of all genders (including intersex children) and recommends empowering children and protecting their physical integrity. It just happens that the media has shown it as specifically an anticircumcision resolution, which has limited the depth of knowledge of most people about it and biased the opinion of commenters.