Harriet Sherwood’s post on Aug. 23, 2010, on Jerusalem’s Light Rail system led with the following headline:

The story began:

“The company building a light railway across Jerusalem is considering segregating some carriages along gender lines to serve the city’s ultra-orthodox Jewish population.”

And, later:

“Under pressure from the influential and growing ultra-orthodox community, some bus lines in Jerusalem have introduced segregation, with women confined to the rear of the vehicle.” [emphasis mine]

Sherwood’s latest post, “Gaza’s first five-star hotel provides luxury and hope amid the blockades“, Aug. 9, included this headline and photo:

Sherwood – in addition to failing to observe how interesting it is that the territory allegedly suffering from a dire shortage of construction materials is able to construct a large luxury hotel – doesn’t note that the hotel’s pool remains off-limits while they figure out a way to ensure that men and women can’t swim, or see each other swimming, together, until the third from the last paragraph.

“But the pool, which could be a big draw, remains off-limits until the management can figure out a way to avoid transgressing conservative Gaza’s social mores. Men and women are forbidden from swimming together and even if the hotel has segregated days, it has yet to find a way ofscreening female swimmers from public view.”

So, gender segregation imposed by the Hamas regime in Gaza merely reflects “conservative social mores”. 

Do you think it’s safe to say that, in the spirit of Sherwood’s report on Jerusalem’s Light Rail Project, Palestinians in Gaza are under “pressure from the influential and growing ultra-orthodox [Islamic] community“?

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