The exasperating attempts of the Leftist parties to
disrupt and cause delays at the polls in the chareidi centers
have already been reviewed at length in our paper. This
phenomenon was manifest in various polls in chareidi
neighborhoods. One of the most extreme and flagrant incidents
occurred in poll no. 287, in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of
Jerusalem.
The secular Jerusalem weekly, Kol Ha'Ir, a Shocken
publication, is not known as a friend of the chareidi
community. But despite its staunch secular approach, the
newspaper published an article sent by a Bayit Vegan resident
cynically and sarcastically describing the experiences of
voters at a poll selected by the Leftists as worthy of their
attention, in order to, as they put it, safeguard the
"purity" of the vote.
My sins I shall enumerate: I went to vote for
the Knesset without wearing glasses -- a terrible sin in
Israeli democracy, which is very strict with forgers. This is
what happened: I'm registered at poll number 287, located in
a neighborhood where the voters must be examined, to wit,
Bayit Vegan. Respectfully, I enter the polling booth room,
holding the attachment to my identity card (they said to
bring it, but no one knows why) in one hand, my identity card
in my other hand, and in my shirt pocket, ready to present,
my voter's notice.
Ms. Nurit Natan, in her high public position as the
chairperson of poll committee no. 287, greeted me. She, as I
was told, represented Yisrael Achat. The lady examined my
identity card with commendable skepticism . Sherlock Holmes
could not have done a more thorough job. She turned it over,
and in the end found the forgery: in the picture on the
identity card I was wearing glasses, but had come to the
polls without them.
"Why," the lady asked in a shrill voice, "are you wearing
glasses in the picture on the identity card, and why aren't
they perched on your nose now?"
My heart fell. The lady had caught me red-handed. In my
mind's eye I envisioned a police van bringing me, along with
all the other forgers and dead people, to the prison, and the
judge asking me in a severe tone: "Why didn't you wear your
glasses when you came to vote?
I came to my senses, and decided that I had nothing to lose
beyond my freedom and my good name. With forced confidence I
replied: "I refuse to answer that question, and I ask that in
the protocol it be recorded that I refused to answer the
question."
The lady swallowed the bait, and transferred the identity
card to Mr. Chagai Shami, a member of the polls committee. He
didn't become confused, and asked me the question meant to
cause me to falter: "Now tell me your identity card number by
heart."
This time, I got mixed up. I told him my identity card
number, but the terrible deceit was nearly revealed: I had
forgotten to cite the control number. Mr. Chagai Shami
repeated the number, and added the control number in an
astonished voice. Miracle of miracles. He didn't call the
police, and even agreed to give me the two envelopes so that
I could vote.
I left the poll room, peering back all along to see if the
police were pursuing me. Had Ms. Natan discerned that I was a
forger and a crook, and was trying to vote for the Knesset
without my eyeglasses, even though on my identity card
picture I was wearing glasses? Had she pardoned my crime?
I returned home and decided that the best defense is an
offense. I wrote a letter of complaint to the Central
Elections Committee, copies of which I personally delivered
to my two examiners, Ms. Natan and Mr. Shami.
At my second visit to the polls, it became clear that I had
escaped the barbed investigation with relative ease.
Professor Yehuda Levi, one of the greatest optical theorists
in the world, left the examination deeply offended.
Apparently, Ms. Natan had discerned a number of weighty
optical problems in the Professor's manner of voting, and put
him in his place. It became clear that after the complaints
of a number of other citizens (forgers, though no one knows
what they forged) the lady was kicked out of the polling
booth, but returned a short while later, this time as an
observer. She sat on the observers' chair, subdued and
crestfallen, while another representative of Yisrael Achat
occupied her seat.
But the story didn't end with that. A short while later, her
replacement left the polling booth, and Ms. Natan returned
and once more occupied the chairman's seat from where she
again began to harass the voters and to cause long waiting
lines and incessant fighting. Liberated territory, the wise
have said, should not be returned.
At about three o'clock the police finally came, and
ceremoniously removed Ms. Natan who had, in the name of
democracy and in the name of Yisrael Achat, taken over the
polling booth. She left the building, accompanied by the
jeers of all in her way, who did not understand that they had
been treated to lesson in citizenship, Yisrael Achat
style.
A closing point: I know of at least one person who voted for
Binyomin Netanyahu due to the lesson in totalitarian
democracy learned from Ms. Nurit Natan.
At the end of the article, the editorial board of the paper
added: "The Yisrael Achat headquarters in the city has
decided not to comment."
