HaPeles, the newspaper of the non-hasidic haredi “rebel” faction lead by
Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, wrote this weekend that it supports the
delegitimization and vilification campaign against haredi IDF soldiers –
who it called “hardakim” (“haredi cockroaches”) – despite the physical
attacks on haredi soldiers that grabbed international headlines last
week.
File photo: Haredi throw stones at police in the jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim in July 2011
Updated at 12:21 PM CDT
Haredi Newspaper Endorses Vilification Campaign Of Haredi Soldiers – Even After Last Week’s Attacks
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
HaPeles, the newspaper of the non-hasidic haredi “rebel” faction lead by Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, wrote this weekend that it supports the delegitimization and vilification campaign against haredi IDF soldiers – who it called “hardakim” (“haredi cockroaches”), Israel HaYom reported – despite the physical attacks on haredi soldiers that grabbed international headlines last week.
The campaign is being financed and run by haredim, mostly those connected to the vehemently anti-Zionist Edah Haredit haredi umbrella group and its Satmar hasidic faction, and the vehemently anti-Zionist Neturei Karta which, while separate from Edha Haredit often works in tandem with it.
While supporting the campaign – which features caricatures of haredi soldiers depicted as giant ogres chasing defenseless haredi children in order to steal their souls, and a nearly unbroken string of incitement by haredi leaders from all camps against haredi soldiers – Hapeles reportedly insisted that it was not responsible for the it.
Haredi soldiers are routinely cursed, spat on, barred from synagogues and haredi study halls and otherwise ostracized as a result of the campaign, and there have reportedly been dozens of physical attacks by haredim against haredi soldiers, as well – including two well-publicized attacks last week, one of them carried out by a mob of 100 to 150 haredim that also threw glass bottles, rocks and metal bars at police and medics who responded to the scene.
Only four haredim were arrested in that mob attack.
Two of them were indicted Friday and remanded until Monday after the prosecution strenuously objected to a magistrate's decision to release them to house arrest.
Friday night, hundreds of haredim, mostly from Edah Haredit-affiliated groups, reportedly held a prayer rally in support of the imprisoned rioters outside the jail where they are being held. None of the rabbis or their followers apologized for the attacks or condemned the violence.
In a related development, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel told Likud’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon that if he cancels draft orders already issued to thousands of haredim for this summer – as Ya’alon said Thursday that he might do because it seemed inconsistent to draft haredi yeshiva students while the government was still considering proposed reforms to the entire draft, and because drafting haredim who refuse to serve is counterproductive to the goal of getting them to serve – the Movement for Quality Government in Israel will petition the High Court of Justice to stop him.
The High Court of Justice has already ruled that blanket draft exemptions for haredi yeshiva students are illegal.
Several months ago, long after that ruling, Ya’alon proposed a law for a mandatory draft for haredi yeshiva students that contained no penalties for dodging that draft. At the time, Ya’alon said that his no penalties for dodging the draft proposal – widely pilloried across the the non-haredi political and religious spectrum in Israel – was necessary because penalties forcing haredim who do not want to serve to serve would be counterproductive the goal of getting haredim to serve.
“Unfortunately,
some people don’t understand the sensitivity of changing the situation
after 65 years. It can’t be changed by force or by law, and certainly
not by threatening populations…," Ya'alon said.
Ya’alon’s Likud Party’s natural allies are the haredi political parties, without whom it is unlikely that Likud will hold power.
Ya’alon has aspirations to be Likud’s leader, and would like to replace Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minsiter after the next elections.
Last night, Minister of Finance Yair Lapid, who heads the Yesh Atid Party that pushed the government to draft haredi yeshiva students, reportedly told Israel’s Channel 10 News that the 3,000 haredim who were already drafted this year and who do not report for service in August as mandated will be sent to prison.
“They will enlist because, if they don’t, the checks will stop. Anyone not reporting to the induction center will be arrested and jailed. Why should my children have to serve while they don’t?” Lapid reportedly said.