The Yesh Atid party experienced an embarrassing incident Sunday when it was revealed that an ultra-Orthodox man who publicly purported to support military service was actually a campaign employee who had dressed up as a religious man.
The incident took place at a rally organized by party leader Yair Lapid, where he spoke against the ultra-Orthodox parties' new bill that seeks to exempt all Torah scholars from military service, in addition to exemptions already given to the ultra-Orthodox.
Media coverage of the rally showed an ultra-Orthodox man carrying a sign reading, "Those who believe, don't dodge [the draft]," who conspicuously followed Lapid around during the rally.
However, soon afterward it was revealed that the man was in fact a party activist in haredi garb.
Yesh Atid distributed video footage and photos of the man to the media, supporting assessments that this was a campaign ploy to show that Lapid's battle for equality in the military service burden was not the mark of any anti-haredi policy.
"This was a prominent Yesh Atid activist and the chances that Lapid or one of his people didn't recognize him are very slim," an opponent of Lapid's said Sunday.
Once the "haredi supporter" was exposed as an impostor, Yesh Atid issued a statement saying, "After further examination we found the man in question was a Yesh Atid activist who dressed up as a haredi man, of his own volition, to protest the new draft bill."
The activist was interviewed by Channel 10's "The Tube," a program that reviews social media posts and videos, and denied both the incident and any affiliation with Yesh Atid.
