A number of rabbonim turned to Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin requesting an urgent plenum discussion regarding the vehemently anti-chareidi and anti-settler remarks made last week by radio host Gabi Gazit. Rabbonim who signed the letter include HaGaon HaRav Dov Lior Shlita, HaRav Yaakov Yosef, HaRav Shalom Dov Wolpe and HaRav David Druckman. The letter was prompted by the Knesset decision to turn down a request for such a plenum session made by MK (Yahadut HaTorah) Menachem Eliezer Moses.
The letter addressed the unacceptable adjectives used by Gazit to express his utter disdain and disgust with chareidim, including “leeches” and “parasites”. They questioned how the host of Nonstop Radio may be permitted to use the airwaves to launch the scathing racist attack against entire segments of society without a response. They warn that his words were not just an attack against settlers and chareidim, but a threat to the democratic society in which Jews live side-by-side in the same country.
The rabbis added that if such words would have been used against the Israeli Arab community, condemnations would have already been heard from the president and heads of state around the world. They stressed the need to respond appropriately to prevent using the airwaves to launch verbal assaults against entire segments of society.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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2 Responses
the problem is that Gabi Gazit is a self hating jew that thinks that the charidiem and that jews that settled in eretz yisrael are the problem to the world peace and if we would have stated in poland or hungrey or russia or were ever we came from and never come back to our home land the land of eretz yisrael the world would be a better place to live
A couple of passing points, if I may, please:
I take objection to the current growing use of the phrase “self hating Jew” as a derogatory epithet for whoever is the current whipping boy of the chareidi community.
Not only is it self-contradictory but it is also becoming devalued by the fact that every Chaim and every Yankel uses “self hating Jews” as an easy cliche.
The other point is – whether we like it or not – Israel is a democracy with a track record of free expression.
Chareidim can not condemn the very existence of the State of Israel, and refuse to participate in its mosdos (except for taking money derived from Zionist taxpayers) and then to criticize how the country manages its affairs.
Do not worry, rabosai: Gabi Gazit will eventually have to answer to the Dayan Haemes for his actions.