Israeli Antisemitism
Finally. After fifty years during which chareidim were
described with every possible degrading adjective — at
times by people acting in official capacity — Israel's
High Court has recently agreed to admit that yes, there are
expressions of antisemitism in the state that professes to be
"the State of the Jews."
Up until now, such claims of antisemitism were received with
both suspicion and mockery. The media considered those who
accused their fellow Jews of antisemitism to be
nudnikim at best and guilty of libel at worst.
Shulamit Aloni was even able to win a case against Rav
Yisroel Eichler who called her an "antisemite." Current
opinion seems to be, "Antisemitism? Here? Can't possibly
be."
It is possible that this standard line, used to defend
antisemitic statements for so many years, was one of the
factors leading to the Shinui party's disgusting election
propaganda, which is thankfully a thing of the past.
For those who don't remember, about three months ago, during
the election campaign, the Election Committee refused to
allow certain sections of a television election commercial
made by Shinui. The scene: a secular man is walking down a
street in Tel Aviv when suddenly a chareidi Jew — whose
image must have been copied from Der Sturmer —
grabs his hand. He tries to free himself but the "chareidi"
holds him tight and doesn't let him go. He goes up to a
public telephone and another chareidi grabs his leg. He tries
to break away, but more and more chareidim cling to him,
holding the legs of the first ones . . . like leeches. He
tries to keep moving, but along comes a whole procession of
chareidim clinging to each other and to him. They don't let
him move. With the last of his strength he walks to the
ballot box, votes for Shinui and . . . the "chareidim" are
wiped out and vanish as if the earth had swallowed them
up.
Let's make it perfectly clear: these particular sections were
not censored. They were broadcast! It turns out that some
other parts were, indeed, censored, and with unbelievable
chutzpah, Shinui asked the High Court to approve them.
One broadcast was censored, and then subsequently broadcast
in its heavily censored version.
*
Elections were held, and Shinui was wiped out and erased from
the political map just like it had predicted would happen to
its mortal enemies, the chareidim. The High Court has
suddenly remembered to rule on the censorship question and
backed the decision of the chairman of the Elections
Committee to cancel parts of the broadcast. This is what
Judge Barak wrote in his actually meaningless decision.
"The film is degrading and demeaning, harms man's self-
respect and especially that of a chareidi Jew. The case under
discussion comes under the category of those special cases in
which the damage to a person's feelings comes close to
contempt, degradation, and comprises severe injury to man's
honor that can not be supported. This case is an extreme one
where its broadcast shakes up any foundation of mutual
respect. The reason for this is it employs images used by
classic antisemites, turning the chareidi Jew into a faceless
creature, a nonperson creeping along on the floor, stuck like
leeches to the secular [Jew.] What happens to this chareidi?
He evaporates and goes up in smoke."
According to Justice Barak, the election broadcast, "exposes
the chareidi — his image and his self-respect —
as a human being. Anyone watching it is reminded of harsh
memories of the millions of our brothers who were burned in
the Nazi crematoria. Such a description is far removed from
accepted levels of tolerance in a democratic society. There
is such a thing as freedom of expression, but not in a way
that degrades and demeans the subject with antisemitic
expressions from the Nazi propaganda schoolhouse."
It is a positive step that at long last, the Israeli Court
admits to a fact that it had so vigorously denied for so many
years: There is antisemitism in Israel. Up until now, anyone
accusing a public figure of antisemitism risked a libel suit.
It seems that the system had a real problem admitting that
such a thing as antisemitism exists in the country, since
such a phenomenon could possibly negate the justification for
setting up a Jewish state in the first place. But no matter
how many times the facts were denied, the truth came out.
Antisemitism has been practiced since the beginning of the
state, against chareidi Jews by Jews who hate religion. Now
it has been officially recognized.
In order to understand this, we can take a lesson from
Holocaust deniers. Why is it so important for the Jews that
there be no denial of the Holocaust?
Because genocide as was carried out in the Holocaust is
considered to be both despicable and vile by most people on
earth. It is difficult for antisemites to incite against
Jews, since such incitement is automatically considered to be
part of the Holocaust. The only way to legitimize antisemitic
incitement is . . . to deny the very fact that the Holocaust
ever took place.
Paradoxically, another Holocaust, chas vecholilo,
could only happen if the latest one is totally denied. By
suppressing axioms (facts generally agreed upon that require
no proof), one can build a whole new system of incitement
that could eventually lead to the extinction of a nation,
chas vecholilo.
This holds true for antisemitism as well. Tommy Lapid
(remember him?) would go crazy with anger every time he was
accused of using antisemitic expressions. The reason is
clear: Antisemitic expressions are unacceptable to the
public. But if you say the same things and they are not
labeled "antisemitic," they could be considered
acceptable.
Don't expect that there will no more use of antisemitic
expressions because of the Court's ruling. But we must know
that hatred of chareidim, even if verbal expressions of it
have waned of late, is liable to be expressed by people using
the same flammable words inciting to hatred, even without
their being labeled "antisemitic."
