In this article, which deals with the shocking murder of the Arab boy by young men "like us," I am trying to raise a voice that will break through the wall of silence that grips the throat of the Haredi public.
This exceptional and extreme act requires us as a society to stand up to reality, show leadership courage, and conduct a true in-house investigation. .
The initial need is to shake off our clothes, cleanse our eyes and say our hands did not shed this blood... but no more, the tip of the iceberg that has been revealed, which has revealed wickedness and cruelty for its own sake, raises question marks, but more than that, places exclamation marks.
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Ben-Gurion saw the Jewish murderer as an expression of normalization. In the yeshivahs where the suspects were educated, they do not study Ben-Gurion's legacy nor do they use the word normalization. But they study issues that deal with the moral core of humanity, turning the Torah's cornerstones inside out in order to refine the soul and correct morals. And yet, 6 young boys stood up and took action (for now, apparently) and the central question is on what ideological and moral platform did these thorns develop, what poisoned wine did they sip that pushed them into the cruel arms of the cold-blooded murder of an innocent boy.
In an editorial in the ultra-Orthodox Lithuanian newspaper "Yated Ne'eman," the writer defines the boys as those who have expelled themselves from the society around them, and the solution he proposes is to raise and strengthen the wall.
Really?! Even though I believe in free choice, can we place the responsibility for their social isolation solely on their shoulders?
Haredi society is a society of groups, sects, and communities. Ashkenazi Haredi, which is the mainstream, sanctifies the old over the new and is characterized by a closed, defensive enclave culture.
Although in recent years we can point to processes of change and transition, the Ashkenazi Haredi narrative prefers the similar over the different, rejecting and eliminating the "other." This is one of the reasons why Mizrahi Haredim have suffered over the years from low status and discriminatory treatment in all areas of life. The Lithuanian stream that gives the voice and the Haredi ideology practices open patronage towards this group.
The suspected boys belong to ultra-Orthodox Mizrahi families, to whom an overt and covert message was conveyed throughout their social lives, reservation at best, and disdain and condescension in other cases.
The Haredi-Mizrahi-dropout boy has been rolled to the end of the social food chain. He carries many "associations," but all of them are negative.
He is associated with the Haredi minority group within the Israeli majority group, he is part of the Mizrahi minority group within the Ashkenazi majority group, and he is a "farank", "ares" and "shababnik".
He wanders on the margins of society but seeks belonging. Nationalism is a potential path of connection to Israeli society. The climate of racist revenge that has swept the streets of our country constitutes a legitimate communication channel for those who accumulate rage and frustration that are bubbling up and overflowing. We must conduct a sharp social and cultural soul-searching.
The distorted reading of reality and its translation into horrific action does not stem solely from taking psychiatric pills (as the main suspect's family claims) but from much deeper reasons.
