Israel’s religious right is changing the state from within
Religious fundamentalism is advancing through Israel’s institutions, narrowing freedoms and deepening inequality.
In Israel, ultra-Orthodox and religious-nationalist forces are wielding growing political influence over questions that reach far beyond their traditional constituencies: gender segregation, religious education, rabbinical authority, the relationship between religious and civil law, and the meaning attached to settlement and territorial control.
Their growing influence raises a broader question about religious fundamentalism and democratic power: what happens when fundamentalist forces do not need to overthrow the state as they can use its existing institutions to reshape it from within?
