'We won't cooperate with the army' (Archive)
Photo: Ido Erez
Man arrested on suspicion of running shaming database for Haredi soldiers
The 36-year-old Bnei Brak residence is accused of managing a site that compiles photographs of ultra-Orthodox IDF soldiers to cause their social exclusion; his detention is extended until Sunday.
Yehuda Kamenitz, a 36-year-old resident of Bnei Brak, is suspected of having managed a database of hundreds of photographs of ultra-Orthodox Israelis in military and police uniforms and having amassed damaging content on them.
At least four IDF soldiers whose photographs Kamenitz had distributed have complained to the police. Kamenitz is suspected of having violating their privacy, distributed computer viruses and insulting a public servant. He was arrested on Thursday, and his detention was extended by three days.
Haredi Jerusalemites view anti-ultra-Orthodox poster in Meah Sha'arim (Archive photo: EPA)
According to a representative of the Israel Police, the suspect is not cooperating and keeping silent during his investigation. His lawyer, Yisrael Klein, said, "There is no real reason to detain him. The attorney general instructed investigating when there is incitement to violence. The court will see that in his investigation, he was accused of inciting to violence. It's not a shame that the police are discovering that it isn't what they thought. They need to come off it, including regarding the arrest."
Klein added, "The material has been around for two years in the possession of tens of thousands of Haredim who think that Haredi enlistment and military participation is inappropriate. It's not the court's role to get involved in matters of where freedom of expression is detained and what damage to privacy is."
Judge Yehezkel Harel of the Tel Aviv Magistrates' Court decided to extend Kamenitz's detention to Sunday, deeming that the evidence presented at this stage justified a reasonable suspicion that Kamenitz may have committed the crimes of which he was accused and that the investigators need to collect further information with the suspect remains incarcerated. Harel emphasized Kamenitz's lack of cooperation.
As part of their fight against the IDF enlistment of ultra-Orthodox Israelis, extremist Haredim regularly commit public acts of shaming against the hundreds of soldiers from the sector. Some have posted photographs of the soldiers in uniform to a website, and members of the public are invited to take additional photographs of other ultra-Orthodox soldiers to add their photographs. This is all intended to humiliate the soldiers in their community and lead to their social exclusion.
'Hardak, if you've gotten this far, you've made a mistake!!!' 'Hardakim out' (Archive photo: EPA)
Another campaign with similar goals invented the pejorative "Hardakim," meaning "frivolous Haredim" for those ultra-Orthodox who elect to serve in the military. It portrays them as "unclean" and seeks to shame them, but it did not go so far as assembling a facebook of individuals.
The IDF, Israel Police and state prosecutor's office have created a joint task force to combat incitement against Haredi soldiers, which Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan (United Torah Judaism) complimented. "Incitement against IDF soldiers will not go by quietly and will be dealt with with a firm hand," the Orthodox MK said. "Harm to IDF soldiers and their families is committed against the orders of the Torah that the harms claim to be acting in the name of."
