Ha'aretz, Israel's left wing "intellectual" newspaper
has a healthy respect for the truth. So much respect, in
fact, that is saves it for special occasions, certainly none
having anything to do with chareidim.
Here are two stories from Ha'aretz about burial of
the non-Jewish victims of the tragic Dolphinarium terrorist
attack. Note how the first story is presented as fact,
although it is clear in retrospect that it was all based on
unverified suppositions and does not meet minimal
jouranalistic standards for verifying the facts.
Note that even in the second story, the correspondent
doesn't have the slightest criticism of the newspaper's
careless reporting and the headline-grabbing politicians.
Who is at fault, according to him? The chareidim, of course,
for their insistence that they keep their "monopoly" over
burials. The truth is that it is not the chareidim who have
lately prevented Tel Aviv from establishing a secular
cemetery by the non-religious politicians who have been
unwilling to allocate the necessary funds.
This story was filed by Ha'aretz on Shabbos:
Hevra Kaddisha Denies Jewish burial to Three Terror
Victims
By Anat Cygielman and Yossi Verter, Ha'aretz
Correspondents
Three of the victims killed in the suicide bomb attack on
Friday night were refused burial in municipal cemeteries by
the Chevra Kaddisha. The religious burial society is
claiming that the three were born of mixed marriages -- a
Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother -- and therefore could
not be buried in Jewish cemeteries.
"It is inconceivable that these children are good enough
to be killed in suicide bombing attacks, yet cannot be given
a proper burial," charged MK Sofa Landver (Labor). Landver
helped the families find alternative burial solutions in
kibbutzim, after accompanying immigrant families to body
identifications at the Abu Kabir Pathology Institute in
Jaffa yesterday.
Shinui party chair MK Yosef Lapid said that Islamic Jihad
and the Chevra Kaddisha were cooperating in wounding the
Russian immigrants. "Islamic Jihad strikes at the living,
and the Chevra Kaddisha strikes at the dead," he
raged.
The following story was filed on Sunday morning, after a
little checking.
Chevra Kaddisha Never Refused to Bury Three Terror
Victims
by Shahar Ilan, Ha'aretz Correspondent and Ha'aretz
Service
At the Chevra Kaddisha (burial society) in Tel Aviv they
were having a hard time understanding Saturday night how
they could have issued a refusal to bury someone, during the
Sabbath. "No one approached us and, anyway, we couldn't have
refused," said Yehoshua Yishai, the director of the Tel Aviv
chevra kaddisha, referring to reports that emerged in the
course of Saturday that his organization was refusing to
bury three victims of Friday's suicide bomb attack, because
they were born of mixed marriages (a Jewish father and non-
Jewish mother).
The Chevra Kaddisha has a special section in Tel Aviv's
Kiryat Shaul cemetery for people whose Jewishness is
uncertain.
So how exactly did the claim emerge that the Chevra
Kaddisha was refusing to bury the three? The media got the
information from Labor Knesset Member Sofa Landver. Because
the information was broadcast on Shabbat, the Chevra
Kaddisha was not aware of the reports and could not respond
to them.
Landver says she first heard the claims from Tel Aviv
municipality social workers. Based on the assumption that
the Chevra Kaddisha would not be prepared to bury the three
girls, Landver organized for them to be buried at Kibbutz
Givat Brenner. "It is inconceivable that these children are
good enough to be killed in suicide bombing attacks, yet
cannot be given a proper burial," she charged.
But, once the Sabbath was out, every possible official in
the religious establishment made it clear that appropriate
solutions would be found for burying the victims. Landver
sounded somewhat chastened Sunday morning, telling Israel
Radio that based on past experience, she assumed there would
be a burial problem and simply went ahead with plans to try
and help the families.
Israel's Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Meir Lau, who strenuously
denied the reports Saturday night, ordered the Chevra
Kaddisha's rabbi to ask the families where they wanted to
bury their children and to carry out the parents' wishes.
Religious Affairs Minister Asher Ohana (Shas) issued a
similar order to the Chevra Kaddisha.
Lau also accused Lapid of sowing hatred, while Ohana
accused Lapid of "making political capital out of the tragic
incident."
It appears that all those in charge of dealing with
solutions to burial problems pertaining to non-Jews are
religious. Unlike the treatment of the injured, which is
considered a matter of pikuach nefesh, Jewish law
does not define burial as a matter for which the Sabbath can
be violated. At the Religious Ministry they are convinced
that there was no systemic failure on their part. Burial
issues, says Ohana, can wait until the Sabbath is
over.
To a certain extent, the Religious Ministry and the
Chevra Kaddisha paid a heavy public relations price on
Saturday for their strenuous efforts to preserve the
Orthodox monopoly on burial. Even though five years have
passed since legislation was passed allowing for civil
burials, there is still no secular cemetery in the greater
Tel Aviv area. The only secular municipal cemetery is in
Be'er Sheva, where it operates effectively.
If there was such a burial place in the Greater Tel Aviv
area, no problem would have arisen Saturday and the
religious establishment would not have suffered a PR
blow.
