June 16, 2009

The Right to Return Masturbate

This leaves me speechless. Well, almost:
Male Palestinian singles? Not at this beach

Dead Sea resort beach says will not allow entry to groups of single Palestinian men without families due to frequent complaints of harassment by women. Beach director defends decision: Last weekend several Palestinian youths snuck in and started masturbating in front of tourists

Daniel Edelson
Published: 06.16.09, 00:48 / Israel News

Men from the Palestinian Authority looking to enter the 'New Kaliya' beach on the Dead Sea are not allowed entry if they are alone. Ynet has learned that the beach directorate has decided to allow the men in only if they are with their families, citing repeated complaints of sexual harassment by female patrons.

Danny, a 35-year-old from Tel Aviv, visited the beach on Friday and said he was shocked by the policy being enacted at Kaliya. "I went with two friends and in line behind us were two Arabs. The girl at the register just wouldn't let them in," he recalls.

As the day progressed Danny said he realized the scene he had witnessed was not an isolated incident. "It kept repeating itself. At one point I asked the people at the register if they really weren't letting Arabs in and they answered straight out that they were not. One of the workers told me that the men just aren't let in alone, but families are. I asked why and she said that they bothered the female tourists… she said there's nothing that can be done, it's just the way it is. What, Israeli hooligans don't bother girls – just Arabs?*"

The Kaliya administration confirmed the policy, but stressed that entry is only denied to Palestinian Arabs who come to the beach in groups. Manager Itay Rahm told Ynet in response: "This is a very serious problem, not just here but for all the Dead Sea beaches. Based on our experience, we don't let young Palestinian men in because of numerous harassment complaints.

"They're not allowed to hit on girls in their villages so they come here to harass them. Just to make a point, the day that man talked about a couple of Palestinian youths managed to sneak in and then started masturbating in front of female tourists."

He added that Israeli Arabs are able to enter the beach without any problems. "It's important to stress that we're talking about Palestinians here, not Israeli Arabs. And this isn't about racism, we let entire families in because I know that when there are women around they won't do anything."
*The answer is: Yes.

5 comments:

Bruce Church said...

It's not just Palestine. I was in Saudi Arabia and they had women-only beaches for the same reason. (Yes, Saudi Arabia has resorts for Westerners and Saudis who can afford to go. Most of them are poor, though.)

Terry Morris said...

That's the sort of thing that goes on in America's penal institutions between certain inmates and their female guards. But we don't want to get into all of this nonsense about how "tough and strong" are these female prison guards subjected to that kind of behavior on a daily basis.

The_Editrix said...

Bruce: I would be amazed if something like that would NOT occur in other Arab countries.

Terry: Are you saying you have female prison guards for male inmates?

Terry Morris said...

Terry: Are you saying you have female prison guards for male inmates?

Oh yeah. Multitudes of them.

The_Editrix said...

Terry I was going to reply: "We don't have anything like that here." But a Google search taught me better. This is an interesting discussion with prison guards and at least one former inmate as contributors. There obviously ARE female guards. They say, too, that it is a good thing for male inmates to be able to communicate with women regarding the re-socialisation aspect, and that problems are rare.

Right now, I am speechless. What conclusion can we draw here? That German prisoners (or rather, regarding demographic reality, prisoners in Germany) are better behaved than their American counterparts? That the problems any sane person will anticipate are denied for the sake of political correctness? Honestly, I don't know.