Tel-Chai Nation

During Memorial Day - and possibly Independence Day - some Haredi extremists unshockingly tried to hurt morale, and police had to take action:

Police on Wednesday in Jerusalem dispersed dozens of extremist ultra-Orthodox demonstrators who they said were planning to disrupt the moment of silence held nationwide during the Memorial Day siren in honor of Israel’s fallen.

Officers deployed at the Kikar Hashabbat intersection moved the protesters out of the road and seized placards they were carrying, police said in a statement.

There were no reports of injuries or arrests.

Hebrew slogans on the signs declared, “A Zionist is not a Jew and a Jew is not a Zionist” as well as the phrase “and Mordechai would not kneel or show respect,” a reference to the biblical Book of Esther, in which Mordechai would not bow down to arch-villain Haman. The phrase is taken as an assertion by anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox that they will not accept the state’s authority.

Israel’s annual Memorial Day includes the sounding of air-raid sirens across the country, for a minute on the eve of the memorial day, and again for two minutes on the following morning.

Hadashot TV news reported that ultra-Orthodox activists also circulated a video clip showing a dummy dressed in IDF fatigues being barbecued on a grill.

Scrolling text on the screen declares, “In honor of Memorial Day the ultra-Orthodox remember the Hardakim [a pejorative term for ultra-Orthodox soldiers] who betrayed the Jewish people and sold their souls to Satan.”

There was no indication who had produced the video clip, which also seemed to ridicule Israelis’ traditional Independence Day barbecues.

The dummy placed on a barbecue stinks of some of the worst nazi-like propaganda around. It only demonstrates why Haredis are no more "moral" than anybody else, and their analogy of non-Haredi Israelis to Haman is just as repellent.

Update: Nathan Slifkin at Rationalist Judaism also has some more disturbing notes about how extremists behaved in Beit Shemesh.

Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Jerusalem, Moonbattery