Haredi site calls for murder of Yaron London

Tzofar website runs opinion column calling on readers to assassinate 'Yediot Aharonot' journalist after he asked how numbers of haredim can be reduced.

By JEREMY SHARON
YARON LONDON 370 (photo credit: Wikipedia)
YARON LONDON 370
(photo credit: Wikipedia)
Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) news website Tzofar published an op-ed on Friday titled “Take out Yaron London” in response to an article by London in the Yediot Aharonot daily asking what efforts could be made to reduce the amount of haredim in Israeli society.
“Exactly like Hitler should have been eliminated before he killed the Jews, so too should be done to anyone who legitimizes public opinion to kill haredi Jews,” columnist Shmuel Kooper wrote in response for Tzofar.
The headline was subsequently modified to read, “contract the existence of Yaron London,” mirroring the headline of London’s piece “Contract ultra- Orthodoxy.”
London told Walla News website that he would not file a police complaint against the website or Kooper.
MK Nissim Ze’ev labeled London’s original comments “anti-Semitic” and said that had they been made by a non-Jewish politician abroad about a country’s Jewish community there would have been an enormous outcry and protest against them.
“London’s words are racist, incite hatred and cross all red lines,” Ze’ev told The Jerusalem Post.
He said, however, that the language used in Kooper’s headline was not appropriate, although he did not believe there was any serious intent to the words.
London, in his article published on May 7, said that “Haredi society educates people to be parasites and cultivates poverty,” and is the most powerful agent for spreading “ignorance, prejudice and all sorts of other nonsense.”
In reference to recent proposals for drafting more haredim into the army, London said that the correct question is not how to draft them and draw them into the job market, “but rather, what should be done in order to reduce the amount of haredim within Israeli society.”
The strengthening of haredi society will lead Israeli society to “ultimate defeat,” and so efforts dedicated to the issue of haredi enlistment should be put towards “the great challenge: Shrinking the ranks of the haredim.”
Kooper compared London’s attitude to that of Hitler, saying that just as the Nazi leader presented Jews as the reason behind all the ills of Germany, so to the Israeli establishment has portrayed haredim over many years in order to prepare public opinion to come out against the ultra-Orthodox community.