The Clalit Health Insurance Fund mascot known as Hamoodi (cutie) was altered recently to include a baseball hat covering his head in a picture published online by the fund as part of a welcome message for newly-appointed Health Minister Arye Deri.
The move to cover the mascot's head in accordance with Orthodox Jewish law was met with outrage from the public, prompting the original creator of the cartoon, artist Daniela London-Dekel, to publish a response saying: "If it were up to me, Hamoodi would receive the new health minister with two hands outstretched forward with orange prison uniforms on them.
"I sold the figure years ago to Clalit Health Services, the same company that today put the hat on him for reasons of religion, vanity, flattery, and poor spirit. I have no ability to protest.
"The character is no longer mine [and has not been] for a long time. But still, I felt like mentioning that the original Hamoodi was a cheeky, blunt, strictly secular boy and there is no chance a convicted criminal would be able to put a hat on his head."
This is not the first time that the Clalit mascot has sported a baseball cap and he regularly appears this way in campaigns and advertising specifically aimed at the ultra-Orthodox community. However, this is the first time that a country-wide advertisement from the health fund, which leads the way in the number of customers they have, has featured the altered, religious version of the mascot.