A compensation claim in the amount of 100,000 shekels was filed this morning (Wednesday) with the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court against veteran photographer Alex Libeck and the Haaretz newspaper where he is employed, by two Haredi minors who were photographed by him without their knowledge and whose photo was published in the newspaper, 'Globes' reported.
The lawsuit refers to a photo taken by Libek on Mount Meron during the Rashbi celebration, in which the two girls are seen next to garbage cans and surrounded by filth and dirt. According to the lawsuit, the photo was taken without the minors' knowledge and without their parents' consent, and was published "with the aim of humiliating them," out of an anti-Haredi agenda.
""To be precise and pointed, Schliebeck is using the guise of freedom of speech and the press to give free rein to a distinctly anti-Haredi movement, which characterizes part of a trend of anti-Haredi incitement and which has been expressed in the past," the parents wrote on behalf of their daughters.
""There is no doubt that the dissonance between the content reflected in the photo and the title 'The 21st Century' is intended to express an inexhaustible disgust with the lifestyle of the people photographed, intended to denigrate them for appearing this way in an advanced era, intended to stand up against their lifestyles, intended to humiliate them, criticize them and point an accusing finger at them for not keeping up with the times and in fact embodying the root of all evil in the 21st century, which is 'such an advanced and enlightened' century.".
""The worst thing is that the reasonable person, observing from the side, might easily think that this is the environment where the Haredim live or one of their residential neighborhoods, while the photo was taken on Mount Meron in the midst of the celebration in memory of Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai.".
""The reasonable person looking at the picture could easily stumble upon the stereotype of Haredim living in squalor, poverty, and dirt in their neighborhoods - while this is not the case," the lawsuit states.
The plaintiffs cite several similar cases in the past, in which Liebeck demonstrated the anti-Haredi agenda underlying his work as a photographer. Among other things, the Supreme Court referred to a photo taken by Liebeck of a Haredi man against a large obscene image placed on the street. The court ruled at the time that the photo was intended to humiliate and demean the subject.
""In such a case, the photographs, from being authentic, become extremely trending. This is especially true when there is a caption that intensifies the trending and even racist message. A picture such as the one published by Liebeck, in which the Haredim are seen against a background of garbage cans, is nothing more than a demonstration of gratuitous hatred and outright insult, which reproduce and perpetuate the stereotype of the misery of Haredi society in Israel," the lawsuit claims.
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