MK Rabbi Yisroel Eichler urgently appealed to the chairman of the Central Election Committee for the 19th Knesset, Judge Elyakim Rubinstein, to stop the election campaign of the Kadima party on the grounds that it is an anti-Semitic, inciteful and falsified platform against the avreichim community.
In a letter to Judge Rubinstein, Rabbi Eichler wrote, "the Kadima party publicizes a false and inciteful slogan stating that soldiers receive a stipend of 350 NIS a month whereas avreichim get 3,400 NIS. They also forced municipal bus companies to run their provoking advertisements to the indignation of chareidi passengers who constitute the lion's share of those using public transportation."
He stressed that "beyond the provocation, there is a blatant lie in the figure of `3400 shekel'. The object of the advertisement is to arouse hatred and foment discord against the chareidi public which is popularly referred to as `avreichim' and which may even lead to violence. This is even worse than the slogan, `No privileges without obligations,' which you justifiably ruled out since it incites against the Arab sector."
Note: The Central Election Committee prohibited a right-wing party from using the above slogan.
Rabbi Eichler's letter says that this publicity of Kadima, chairman, Shaul Mofaz, "incites the masses which may not differentiate between pocket money which soldiers receive above and beyond the ongoing budget for support, health expenses, civilian professional training and other auxiliary benefits, and the mere pittance of 800 shekel which a married avreich with children receives from a government allocation." A married soldier, he added, receives "a monthly salary which is three times what a married avreich gets, without even taking into consideration the cost to the public for the upkeep of a soldier, including food, health plan, travel expenses and studies."
In conclusion, Rabbi Eichler writes, "The very object of this hate campaign against a specific sector which is castigated as it is throughout the year by the media, is incitement to racism. Even if the avreichim are not of one specific community, the use of soldiers on the one hand and Jews on the other is a very dangerous and life-threatening provocation, and not only for the chareidi sector. I therefore request an urgent meeting to invalidate this anti-Semitic publicity of Kadima."
