Israel – The IDF denounced posters in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods vilifying haredi soldiers.
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The posters are part of an organized campaign by extremists to delegitimize ultra-Orthodox men who choose to volunteer for military service.
The extremists refer to these soldiers by a derogatory Hebrew acronym meaning “weak-minded haredi,” which is also an amalgam of the words “haredi” and “harakim,” or insects.
Haredi soldiers have complained of harassment and there have been multiple reported cases of enlistees facing physical and verbal violence. Earlier this year a haredi soldier was pulled out of his car and beaten. In another case, several dozen young men set upon a pair of uniformed soldiers walking through the Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea She’arim. As of July the army had received over 80 complaints of physical violence and verbal abuse.
The uptick in attacks against haredi soldiers has been linked by Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon and other officials to the “hardak” campaign.
“The IDF utterly denounces and condemns any violent behavior, physical or verbal, toward those who serve. The IDF provides special support to those who serve in it from the haredi community, due to sensitivity to their position,” the army said in a statement in response to the newest batch of posters.
“The military has set up a 24-hour assistance hotline for haredi soldiers.”
The posters show a haredi soldier, with part of his face blurred out, changing from his uniform into the more common haredi outfit of black pants and white shirt.
“Hardakim are missionaries with a double identity,” the sign proclaimed.
“The hardakim viruses are spreading,” the sign continued. The so-called hardakim, it claimed, are trying to “entice the senses” of haredi children with talk of “holding a rifle and feeling like a false hero.”
Calling haredi servicemen a “deadly danger,” the poster also featured an illustration of a soldier with sidelocks kidnapping crying children and placing them in an army jeep.
The hardak campaign has utilized cheerful looking cartoons and even ran a contest asking children to submit their drawings of the evils of haredi soldiers.
A comic book for children released by the campaign in November portrayed secular Israelis as bears luring innocent haredi sheep into the army in order to consume them.
“No investigation [has been] opened as of [Sunday] evening. However, this issue is being looked into,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told The Jerusalem Post.
According to MK Dov Lipman, the funding for this campaign may come from abroad.
“I have sources which indicate that the funding is coming from the United States,” he told the Post.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
They cant tolerate that some in their midst are joining the enemy,sure when you dont have a meal or a job to sustain youreself you will do what it takes to put food on the table but theese ultra fanatics dont get it yet only when their frigidaire will be empty then they will scream help help a bunch of weak minded unthinking fools they are with their rebbes toghether.
This is worse than pornography. How dare these people do this, I guess they would prefer the arabs come in and murder them.
Resha’im – pure & simple.
The lack of hakaros hatov amongst the chareidi communities in EY is nothing short of mind-boggling. This is torah?
According to MK Dov Lipman, the funding for this campaign may come from abroad.
It’s obvious since almost all funding for everything in Israel comes from the US.
to all of you commenters , by the chorben of the bais hamikdosh their ware also rashuim who claimed that the right thing is to fight and to be part of the army , and we all know and cry for this for 2000 years , the same is here , how can you think that any good can come out of this land when we all know and see that this government is based on akiras htorah ? they have money for abortion and all of the znus and trife chazer, chilul Shabbos , who is the captain ? people who don’t believe in the torah ,dont believe in H’ can you say hacoras hatov ? can you support them ? chas vasholom if another chorben of Israel will come who will say yudainu lo shofcho as hadom haze ? the founders said rak bdam teheye as hoarets ” can you be part of it ? we need to act like pinchos and elyaho to be moche . please do tshovah ..
reply to #7 : do you know how many Jewish people ware killed in Israel since 1948 ? how many times do they have to go into bunkers ? do you know that the “911” was because of the Zionist ? do you know the whole world is burning terrorist are destroying the world all because of the Zionist government , do you know its embarrassed to go around the world all because the chilul H’ from Israel ,, but but If I say im an American Jew im respected , how
about that ? just put your head in sand ..
Fact is if you want to avoid the army you can without all this propaganda. You can accomplish diplomatically with a smile far more than you ever will with your “historic protests”. They are our brothers and the last several decades have shown us clearly that the spark of Yiddiahkeit keeps on flickering in so many hearts. Thousands of baller teshuva came out of these so called “Zionist Rishoim” ! So turn the lights on and turn the hate off! Nobody will change your lifestyle, to the contrary you can change theirs!