A haredi MK gets into an argument with an attorney from the Justice Ministry after a heated committee meeting about allocations to haredi schools given in violation of the law. The MK accuses the attorney of "being worse than the Germans, because the Germans only wanted to destroy our bodies while you want to destroy our souls!" The attorney tells the MK to shut up "or I'll slap you!" Apparently taunting, the MK says "I'm waiting!" The attorney slaps the MK, gets arrested and then released under restrictions, including having no contact with the MK.
The MK, Yakov Cohen says "even my father never hit me like this" and "my whole world went dark." Yet, when photographed after the incident, the MK's face shows no bruising, swelling, redness, cuts or any other signs of injury. The MK wants the attorney fired.
I think it is wrong to lash out physically and the attorney should be reprimanded and perhaps fired. But what of the MK, a Gerrer hasid? Is calling another Jew "worse than" the Nazis appropriate, especially in the Knesset? I think not. Yet haredim do this all the time. They turn secular Jews, Modern Orthodox Jews, Conservative and Reform Jews, into the Other and then demonize them. It is a normal part of haredi discourse, so normal, in fact, that competing haredi factions do this to each other.
This goes to the heart of the matter. Haredim have no civics education, no training in or appreciation for democracy and free debate. This is especially sad because, in its most pure form, the yeshivot that first codified halakha, Jewish law, 1800 years ago operated as mini-democracies, where decisions were made by majority rule. But haredism (and especially hasidism) has corrupted that system to such an extent that democracy has become a foreign element, not a founding principle.
And all of this is especially ironic because the Knesset committee was discussing allocations given illegally to haredi schools. Why were these allocations illegal? Because the law states that a basic core curriculum including basic math, science and civics must be taught in any school that receives state funding. Civics, of course, includes democracy. And the haredi schools in question? That's right – they do not teach it.
UPDATE: The attorney is the son of Holocaust survivors and lost much of his family in Auschwitz. That and more, here.