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1 Adar 5759 - Feb. 17, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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State Prosecutor: No Investigation Against Anti-Religious Am Chofshi

by Betzalel Kahn

While anti-chareidi incitement and antisemitic behavior toward the chareidi public is raging full force, and while chareidi public figures are being interrogated by police for supposedly provocative remarks, the State Prosecutor has decided not to open a criminal investigation against Am Chofshi for last month's campaign of incitement.

Am Chofshi recently launched a severe, unprecedented incitement campaign against Israel's chareidi community, revolving around the fact that yeshiva students do not serve in the army. The organization circulated postcards with the following text: "This year, 22 soldiers were killed in Lebanon, and not one of the chareidi draft dodgers was killed in the tents of Torah. You fight for us, and now we will fight for you. Separate religion from money." On the other side of the postcard was a picture of two soldiers looking at a military cemetery.

The postcards also had other inflammatory statements, such as: "More than 3,000 elderly people in Israel are waiting for beds in nursing homes, and there are none available. But fictitious chareidi organizations will steal tens of millions of shekalim from the public treasury again this year."

These remarks resulted in a long line of irate, sharp reactions, the primary one observing that these postcards go beyond the permissible within legitimate public debate and demanding that the organization's leaders be arrested and put behind bars.

Secretary general of Degel HaTorah, Rabbi Moshe Gafni, also wrote to the State Prosecutor, claiming that this was a defamatory campaign, and that the aim of the organization is to incite against the chareidi community. Rabbi Gafni received a reply from Talia Sasson, in the name of the State Prosecutor Edna Arbel, to the effect that she saw no reason to open an investigation.

"After examining your complaint and the statements made by Am Chofshi, I conclude that they do not constitute a criminal offense. The statements about which you complain constitute piercing criticism and the expression of a political-social viewpoint. These statements have been drafted very sharply, but still may not be categorized as criminal. The State of Israel is a democratic country which supports the principle of freedom of speech. As a result, the State Prosecutor employs, inasmuch as possible, a policy of restraint in instances of the incising of this freedom. I am certain that such restraint is both worthy and desirable," stated the letter.

In the wake of this letter and Yated Ne'eman's report on the investigation of Rabbi Chaim Miller, Rabbi Gafni sent an additional letter to Talia Sasson of the State Prosecutor's office, in which he wrote: "Freedom of speech is a principle which must be preserved as long as it does not exceed the borders of human decency and develop into incitement and encouragement to harm a broad community. The day I received your letter, the media released a report that an order had been signed to investigate Rabbi Chaim Miller and to bring him to trial for his remarks. I don't agree with what he said, but he himself retracted his statement and apologized. In a democratic-egalitarian country, law enforcement authorities must define precisely when speech is considered legitimate, within the framework of freedom of speech, and when it deviates from these standards."

Reacting to Rabbi Miller's investigation, Deputy Housing Minister Rabbi Meir Porush stated: "It is difficult to understand. The authorities involved in this case must explain to the public why a policy of favoritism is being employed. How is it possible that heinous remarks against the chareidi communities, like those made by the chairman of the Labor party, Ehud Barak, are not dealt with, while chareidi public figures are being investigated by the Police. It is difficult to rid ourselves of the feeling that this is a policy which does not conform to regular standards of law and order. This affair brings to mind the difficult, dark days of the early history of the nation residing in Zion."


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