October 11, 2014
Members of the ultra-Orthodox community in Jerusalem distributed posters this week caricaturing Haredi Jews serving in the IDF as pigs and accused them of attempting to corrupt the religious community.
The flyers were part of a campaign against the participation of ultra-Orthodox Jews in the IDF whose slogan brands religious soldiers as insects and attempts to dissuade others from the community from joining them.
“They sent me to confuse the boys in the seminaries, and dry out their souls,” the caricature pig-soldier brags in the text of the posters, which were pasted on walls in some of the capital’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods earlier this week. “I fool them with slogans from the Gemara, but in effect I’m something else entirely.”
Alongside him are three ultra-Orthodox children who scoff at the soldier, who wears a black skullcap, is carrying a Talmud and has a gun over his shoulder. “Look at what ears he has,” one says, “just like a hyena.”
“I actually think it’s a fox, look at its smile,” the second says.
“I’m telling you that it’s ‘something else [i.e. a pig]’ entirely, look at its nose and look at what it has in its pocket,” the third says. The pig-soldier has a copy of Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth sticking out of his IDF uniform pants.
A young man in a black suit, presumably old enough to be drafted into the army, runs away.
Last year, a series of caricature posters widely distributed in ultra-Orthodox areas across Israel showed the IDF rounding up Haredi children in order to force them into the military; or tranquil Haredi streets being forcefully cleansed of IDF-serving traitors. “Keep this area clean!” one poster bellowed in red ink.
According to government statistics published in September, ultra-Orthodox enlistment in the IDF is up 39 percent this year, but still below quotas enshrined in the 2013 “equal-burden” law, which mandated ultra-Orthodox participation in the army or national service.
The 2013-2014 conscription cycle saw 1,972 ultra-Orthodox youth enlist in the IDF, up from 1,416 in 2012-2013 and from 1,327 in 2011-2012, according to the committee tasked with monitoring the implementation of the law.
The law, which also mandates legal ramifications for individuals and yeshivas that do not comply with enlistment, has been protested heavily by the ultra-Orthodox community. Members of the ultra-Orthodox community have demonstrated against the law, and radicals have gone so far as to attack Haredi soldiers in uniform.
Source: Times of Israel
http://www.timesofisrael.com/haredi-poster-paints-religious-idf-soldiers-as-pigs/
http://privateinvesigations.blogspot.com/2014/01/ultra-orthodox-haredi-campaign-calls.html
Ultra-Orthodox Haredi Campaign Calls IDF 'National Trash Can'
New drawings inciting against ultra-Orthodox IDF soldiers have been distributed in haredi concentrations and social networks in recent days, as part of radical circles' battle against the impending IDF draft law and the plan to force yeshiva students to join military or national service.
The anonymous campaign managers have published several cartoons created by children who have joined the battle against the "draft decree." The drawings were posted on bulletin boards in radical haredi concentrations, and the leaders of the campaign have promised to release additional cartoons soon.
Troops likened to bacteria
One of the posters shows haredi soldiers going up in flames inside a military post, crying out "help" and "Tata" (father in Yiddish – a common cry of despair in the haredi sector). Next to them stands a satisfied, smiling man-fox wearing an IDF uniform, with a beard and a skullcap, apparently symbolizing the person responsible for their recruitment and burning.
Another drawing presents a yeshiva student and haredi children fleeing a haredi soldier and crying out: "Predatory hardak" (a derogatory term for haredi soldiers used within their own communities).
One cartoon shows the "national trash can of the IDF and civil service," which yeshiva students are forcibly shoved into – and then come out shaved, in uniform and red berets.
One of the ads includes several children's cartoons which warn against the "poison of the hardak bacteria," refer to the soldiers as the "Cantonists of Israel of 2013," warn that "child abductors are roaming the market" and present a former haredi crying out: "Save me, I've became a hardak, I regret it."
Ironically, one of the posters is sponsored by the "Proper Speech Institute," which preaches against "slander, disagreement and humiliation." In order to justify its participation in the campaign, the institute quotes from the holy book "Chafetz Chaim" on Jewish ethics and laws of speech, which deals with these bans. "Instead of the destruction and demolition of religion… it is a great mitzvah and duty to do everything in one's power."
'To be or not to be'
Meanwhile, the drawings' distributors appear to be opening another front – this time against moderate haredi elements who are trying to harm the campaign. A leaflet distributed to synagogue managers urges them to document acts of vandalism against the ads or theft of propaganda material.
The radical circles attribute the acts to "striking forces of the army and Nahal and civil-national service," and plead with the synagogue managers: "At the instruction of the rabbis, may they live long and happily… whoever meets a suspected guy of this kind must follow him and document the theft in a regular camera or one installed on a pen… so that we can handle these guys according to the way of the Torah.
"These days, dear generous people have begun purchasing hidden cameras which will be operated in certain synagogue, where the hardak thefts are particularly active," the leaflets stated. "There is a lot of work of course, so the public must contribute and help.
"Jew, remember! Every booklet and every information paper is a very precious weapon. It has the power to prevent a Jewish soul from falling into the impurity and filth of the army and civil-national service. We are in a fighting retreat – to be or not to be… May we enhance the prestige of the Torah and cut down the evil."