A recent Facebook post has called on citizens to "prevent the embezzlement by the ultra-Orthodox." The post, shared and liked by tens of thousands, warns that Knesset Finance Committee Chairman Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) and Interior Ministry Aryeh Deri (Shas) have colluded to raid the public coffers through a clever arrangement that would force the Ben-Gurion International Airport to pay property taxes to the municipalities in its vicinity, which happen to have large haredi populations.
Here we have all the elements necessary for incitement and hatred. But the fact of the matter is that after years of endless battles and years of receiving waivers, the Interior Ministry has finally managed to bring the Israel Airports Authority to pay what it owes under a permanent arrangement.
The all-powerful authority has managed to get away with those unfair waivers for years by torpedoing reforms until it finally buckled and agreed to pay a lump sum of 1.2 billion shekels ($350 million), as well as 150 million shekels ($43 million) every year. Some of the annual payments would go toward the nearby municipalities to compensate for the inconveniences they have to endure due to operation of the airport (including noise, pollution and traffic congestion).
What Deri and Gafni did was an act of social justice. They have redistributed funds from a strong entity in a way that alleviates the tax burden of the socio-economically disadvantaged groups in Lod, Or Yehuda, Yehud-Monosson, Shoham and other localities, not to the haredi communities that were mentioned in that Facebook post.
The ease at which lies can be propagated online is just beyond the pale, and even dangerous. These lies can undermine the democratic principle that we must all abide by: the truth. Spreading lies creates a twisted reality, to the point that a large part of what we see on social media is just made up.
What was supposed to be a digital version of the Hyde Park's Speakers' Corner, where people can engage one another in a frank and honest discussion, has become a tool for the proliferation of lies that can serve as a credible example for fake news. The very concept of a democratic discourse unravels by the dangerous claims that are accepted as truths in social media.
The misleading viral post sends a dangerous message and creates hatred toward haredim. While I am secular through and through, I feel a great bond with my brethren who live in religious communities. They are part of us.
The Israeli public paints haredim as one homogeneous sector, ignoring its diverse groups. I may disagree with their views on the proper degree of religion in the public sphere, I may reject the political pressure they apply as part of the democratic game in the Knesset, but just like the Torah commands us to love strangers in our land and protect them, I feel obliged to love the religious among us.
