The horror felt by the chareidi community at the crude
campaign of hatred waged by Tommy Lapid and the Shinui party
has found some echoes in the broader community.
An advertisement placed in the Ha'aretz newspaper on
Monday compared phrases used by Lapid against the chareidim
with those used in Nazi Germany against Jews. The ad was
placed by Haifa businessman Aviad Vissoly, who is not
chareidi.
Among the comparisons was Lapid's, "A government without
chareidim," with the Nazi "Judenfrei" government,
Lapid's, "The chareidim are the source of the government's
problems," with the Nazi "Die Juden sind unser
Ungluck" (The Jews are our misfortune), and Lapid's call,
"Stop the Chareidim," with the Nazi "Halt der
Juden."
Lapid has not clarified his position on any issue except for
his opposition to chareidim. However his writing contains
ample hints. He once called the government of Peres-Rabin a
Judenrat. He called those who work on ecological
issues "nudniks who fight against humanity," and said that he
wanted to admit fewer to universities. Writing about a former
Mossad agent who published a book about a year before Prime
Minister Rabin was assassinated, he argued that "treason
which damages the State of Israel," justifies murder of the
culprit.
On Monday there was a small protest demonstration outside the
Attorney-General's Office, calling for people who incite
against chareidim to be prosecuted in the same way those who
incite against the Arabs are prosecuted.
Among the slogans were: "Put out the flame [lapid] of
incitement," "Our blood is shed and [Attorney-General
Elyakim] Rubinstein is quiet."
On Sunday MK Rabbi Ravitz accused Lapid of being antisemitic.
Rabbi Ravitz said: "I am convinced that Lapid is an exact
replica of France's [National Front leader Jean-Marie] Le
Pen, the US's [Nation of Islam leader Louis] Farrakhan and
Russia's [fascist leader Vladimir] Zhirinovsky, and there is
no need to waste words on the results of the hate campaigns
of those inciters and provocateurs."
He backed his claim with a selection of quotes by Lapid and
Poraz, the second man on Lapid's list.
Lapid: "The chareidim give birth to too many children."
Lapid: "I relate to Jewish religion as to voodoo."
Lapid: "The chareidim are medieval, antisemitic."
Lapid: "The chareidim feel that they are doing a good job at
fulfilling the task of Jews as depicted in all of the
antisemitic literature: that of exploiting the non-Jew,
trading in his blood and laughing at him behind his back."
Poraz :"The chareidim are bandits and are robbing us."
Lapid: "The chareidim constitute a genuine threat to Israeli
society."
Rabbi Ravitz added, "As the head of the Finance Committee of
the Knesset, I say with full authority, that there is no
topic or cause in the entire budget of the state which favors
the chareidi community. The opposite is true."
Rabbi Ravitz then brought two examples: In its election
infomercials, Lapid said that the yeshiva students receive
three times as much support from the government as regular
university students. The truth is that a university student
receives eight times as much from the government as yeshiva
students.
An additional example is the budgets for culture for
chareidim. It is claimed that the chareidim receive huge
sums. All of the support for culture for the chareidim is for
lectures on Jewish topics. Every lecturer receives, from all
the government offices together, 22 shekels per lecture ($5).
But when a secular person delivers a lecture he receives more
than 800 ($200) shekel an hour.
In addition Rabbi Ravitz noted that the government subsidizes
secular culture very heavily. Every ticket sold for the Inbal
Dance troupe enjoys a government subsidy of NIS 325 ($80).
Every one in attendance at a performance of the Israel
Philharmonic is getting a government subsidy of NIS 23.05
toward the real cost of the performance. At the Bat Sheba
dance performances the subsidy is NIS 61 per ticket sold, and
at the Camerai Theater the subsidy is NIS 127.61 per
ticket.
Moreover, the incitement against the chareidi community has
already spilled over into violence, as Shinui thugs attacked
UTJ campaign workers last Friday in Rishon Letzion. With
hatred in their eyes and on their lips, screaming, "Lapid
will annihilate you," they attacked the workers with
clubs.
Though the UTJ workers soon abandoned the scene last week,
they do not intend to give up on Rishon Letzion, Israel's
fourth largest city. The chairman of UTJ headquarters there,
Rabbi Zvi Varker, and the coordinator of the voters, Reb
Moshe Zusman, say that they intend to increase the number of
the cityˇ's voters for UTJ by a factor of four. In the last
elections UTJ received 520 votes in Rishon.
In another example of extreme incitement against the chareidi
public, a giant sign hung over the Bilu junction outside
Rechovot on Sunday announcing, "Dosim [an insulting
reference to chareidim] to the crematoria."
MK Tzvi Hendel (formerly of Mafdal and now of the National
Union), who noticed the sign, removed it himself with help
from passersby. He later said that the "moral responsibility"
for such incitement and hatred lies with Shinui party leader
Tommy Lapid and his vitriolic anti- chareidi positions.
