Israel – In an effort to alleviate the boredom of passengers waiting for their trains to arrive, Israel Railways has recently installed a number of large plasma screens in its stations and on its outdoor platforms.
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But not everyone is pleased with the initiative, particularly since the railway signed a deal bringing Channel 10's broadcasts live to the platform screens with some episode promos depicting the scantily-clad participants that have outraged Orthodox, religious and even some secular train passengers.
Members of religious Internet forums minced no words in voicing their displeasure with the railway. "We will have to call for a mass boycott of the trains by the religious public. I was shocked at the impertinence of the content, without being given the choice of whether you wish to see it or not. This is cheap coercion and it does against Jewish principles," writes one poster. [Ynet]
B A Mentsch – yours is the standard response to anything that cannot be seriously argued with. Emotive but empty!
Hey Shmuel Yosef – I recognize you!
You’re the Satan himself!
No one is trying to offend anyone. The vast majority of train riders are not from the haredi sector. Israel Railways is trying to please the majority of its customers which is what most businesses do. And as I said no one is forced to watch the screens. Is the objection to having the screens at all or what? It doesn’t make much sense to boycott the train because you don’t like what you are not forced to look at on the platform. We hear the same rumblings every now and again when there is nothing new to complain about about, over airline films. Interestingly enough from my flying experience, Haredim don’t seem to have boycotted flying or watching the films, peeking up from the gemorra that stays on the same daf throughout a six hour flight.
In no other country would anyone dare try to offend their customers.
The customers do have the option of not using the service. I guess it all depends on how much they care.
Can they put their money where there mouth is?
More Haredi shtick! The screens can easily be avoided. All you have to do is stand immediately underneath or behind the screen and you will not see anything. Have your iPod earpiece in with the days Daf shiur and you will not hear anything either. It really is about time the Haredim in Israel stopped trying to dictate how the country is run.
There was a great cartoon about 20 years ago in the newspaper Erev Shabbos, when bus shelters in Israel had ads with immodestly dressed women and people were defacing them with Silly String, or “Spray” as they called it in Hebrew.
In the cartoon, the guy who took out the ads was being interviewed, and was asked about the vandalism. He replied, “I’m happy about it.” The interviewer asked, “Why would you want people covering your ads with Spray?” He answers, “that’s just it–my company makes Spray!”