The reality of our Israeli state is particularly rich. Every day brings its own surprises. Sometimes joyful, sometimes less so.
Sometimes shocking.
As we know, nowadays social networks have become repositories containing vast amounts of information that transcend time and borders. We have often seen organizations and protests that have grown out of online expressions, just as we have also encountered the systematic sowing of disputes and divisions between parts of society.
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Either way, it is clear that these networks are an unparalleled platform for expressing and sharing opinions. There, in contrast to the "official" media, we meet the people. There, the personal opinions of everyone who has sought to share them are reflected, and therefore our society is also reflected as it truly is.
Nice to meet you.
Prejudices and stereotypes are sometimes found to be true and sometimes disappear in an instant.
How does the daily surprise connect to the network?
Last week, unfortunately, the body of the young man Aharon Sofer, the late, was found, after he had been missing for an entire week.
An entire week, in which the media did not bother to interest or interest the public, not in the absence, not in the search, not even in the video of the desperate cry of the young man's parents. While the ultra-Orthodox media tried in all sorts of ways to raise awareness of the matter, most of the Israeli public discovered the "missing" man, along with his body in Ein Kerem.
Most of the public, not all. Some discovered the sad story even before its tragic end – on social media. There, photos, ads, calls for help in the search or at least for vigilance were posted and shared hundreds of times, perhaps someone would accidentally encounter him.
Last Tuesday, the 26th of the Hebrew month, about five days after the young man went missing, the Israel Police first published an appeal on Facebook, which began with the words: "We once again ask for your help in the search for Aharon Sofer..." The appeal was accompanied by two photos and physical details of the young man.
It wasn't hard to notice that this was the first Facebook post, and that the important detail of the red hair color wasn't mentioned. As mentioned, in light of the responses, it was clear that few had heard of it before.
Here too, one could see those seeking to help, pray, unite for the young man, or at least those who wished he would be found safe and sound. Some also wondered why the media had not reported on the missing man, and as expected, there were those who took advantage of the platform to slander Haredim and did not pass up the opportunity.
Comments such as "I just don't mind that some dos are missing?" or "One less parasite" - are already something we've become accustomed to.
I finally arrived and was shocked by the following response:
""...it's hard to find a missing Haredi... they all look similar in clothing and sometimes in appearance...it's a serious problem...let's just hope he wasn't kidnapped, committed suicide or fell to his death and is found safe and sound.".
The almost innocent response, which doesn't even stem from malice, was like a slap in the face. That person is convinced that it's hard to spot an ultra-Orthodox person among all the others because they all look "the same." So convinced, that he went so far as to do, or write, and explain his words again.
What does it mean? That for an ultra-Orthodox person, more search forces are needed because he is harder to find, or that there is even no point in searching because it is too "a serious problem"? Is this perhaps a justification for the fact that his photo was not published by the police until that day on Facebook, because what good would it do, he looks like everyone else.
""The faces of the dossies are the same faces." Even if he hopes the guy will be found safe and sound, is that what that talkbacker thinks? Indeed, it's a "serious problem.".
And what if, God forbid, I were to say about the three kidnapped people, Gil-Ad, Naftali, and Eyal the Elder, that it is too complicated to search for them because they look like the rest of the people wearing knitted kippahs? Or maybe we can let South Tel Aviv crime rise under the pretext that "they look the same"?
Sounds shocking? Racist? Even bizarre? Interesting.
Still trying to understand where such a response came from, my eyes fall on the next shock: "Let them check, maybe the pagel is lonely on the mountain." This time I didn't have time to think. Not about such a hateful response, nor about the evil emanating from those words. Nor about the poor ignorance of the writer.
I didn't have time because he quickly had to explain himself to other angry Talkbackers, to whom a quick search of his profile revealed that he was a volunteer diary writer for the Israel Police!
And here is the explanation: "(I am) a volunteer diary writer. Maybe the page is out of place, but there are plenty of them living in the mountains, so check there...""
""Full of them"? "Not in the right place but..."? "In the mountains"?
Then it hit me. They're not guilty.
Not because they don't know that quite a few Jerusalemites enjoy walking through the Jerusalem Forest or even just crossing it as a "shortcut," but because they are victims of an unobjective media, of a media that has presented the Haredim to them in the most unflattering light. That lumps all Haredim together as one identical bloc, without distinguishing between currents, circles, and committees, and presents them as extremists, anti-state, non-conscripts, non-workers, one big burden. How did he say it? "A serious problem.".
How can they not think that "everyone is the same" and "everyone has the same face"? True, "we all have faces," but "the faces of the dossies in black and glasses for the most part... are the same face." What, don't you understand?
How could they not belittle a poor guy who disappeared from his parents with a statement like "Search the mountains, lots of them go there"?
"Our" media does this with partial camouflage, lumping such a diverse public into a one-faced bloc, and building a misleading public opinion.
If the social network reflects public opinion or part of it - I am ashamed.
She is also ashamed of the media, which does not hide its opinions and enjoys distorting the face of things, and of those people who believe her.
No, the ultra-Orthodox and no religious person has an obligation to prove to anyone that they are a person in their own right, with their own character, beliefs, and opinions. But the media, which is supposed to serve the citizens of the country, has an obligation to provide information that will not mislead the public, and will not reinforce biased and erroneous perceptions.
At a time like this, the media has a moral obligation to call on the public to cooperate in the search for a missing person, shortly before his body is found.
The media always has a moral obligation to provide objective and unbiased information, so that such reactions do not occur again.
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