Rabbi Avraham Ravitz (UTJ) has sent a letter to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, requesting he probe the bus campaign launched by the left-wing Meretz Party, displaying signs on buses “An end to the chareidization of Jerusalem.”
In his letter to Mazuz, Rav Ravitz states he “smells a hint of racism in the tone of the ad campaign. It appears to me that a legitimate party such as Meretz can not abuse the freedom of speech right to incite the public against other legitimate populations in Jerusalem with racist slogans”.
Rav Ravitz also turned to the management of Egged, the bus cooperative, requesting it immediately remove the “racist ad posters from buses”.
“Perhaps we [as a people] have become less sensitive and therefore, we are unaware just how offensive the slogan appears,” Ravitz is quoted saying to the weekly Mishpacha Magazine.
Rabbi Ravitz questions what the response would have been if the term chareidi was replaced by Muslim.
Ravitz adds he believes a campaign for local elections may and should be conducted with slogans expressing the views of a party, but the current level of the campaign is unacceptable. “It has a bad taste”, he said referring to the bus ad campaign, adding it may even violate laws prohibiting incitement.
Egged responded, explaining it was unaware, and will be removing the posters from city buses within 24 hours.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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5 Responses
The goal of zionism was (and based on what most non-frum Israelis still believe), and is, to create a homeland where the Jewish people will be an “Am Hofshi” – a people free from the yoke of Torah and Mitsvos. Asking Meretz to tolerate a growing Hareidi population in Jerusalem would be like asking the “Gush emunim” types to accept expelling Jews from most of Eretz Yisrael, or asking the yeshiva world to give up learning Torah and take up a hedonistic lifestyle.
once again…jew vs jew….what a chaval. hashem pls end this before its to late…
#2 While virtually all Israeli hilonim of the mid-20th century were Jews, increasingly many are goyim who have Jewish ancestors (and in all fairness, virtually all goyim have Jewish ancestors if you want to go back far enough). The problem is that in Eretz Yisrael, non-Jews with Jewish ancestry see frum Jews as the enemy.
…And where were these Askonim until now, with all the decadent bus advertising?
The ads are appalling, but the claim of “racism” is ludicrous. By calling this “racism”, even just a “hint” racist, R’ Ravitz not only undermines his righteous complaint, but cheapens legitimate opposition to real racism. Unless not keeping Torah uMitzvoth makes you a “member” of some “race”, bashing Chareidim does not constitute racism. Wearing black clothes does not make you black. Call it what it is [albeit barely]–incitement…but don’t destroy your credibility by trying to exaggerate it into racism. Instead of trying to silence these jokers with flimsy legal complaints [the modus operandi of the antireligious selfloathing left], they should be being exposed, with [gasp!] Aristotelian logic and example (since that is the bedrock of the worldview of most non-Chareidhim), for the morally/ethically and socially bankrupt traitors and fools that they are.