A Jerusalem District Court has ordered a haredi caricaturist
who sketched an anti-enlistment poster to apologize to haredi soldiers.
The man, Avishai Hannania, painted a derogatory poster calling
haredim who enlisted "light of judgment." The court's ruling came in
response to a lawsuit filed by Menahem Strauber, a haredi soldier who received
death threats and was even attacked for serving in the IDF.
The story was first revealed last June and in the lawsuit
Strauber demanded NIS 30,000 ($8,580) in compensation to what he claimed was
incitement.
According to Strauber, the caricature which Hannania drew
was incitement not just against himself but also against the hundreds of
haredim already serving in the IDF.
His lawyers presented as evidence a poster in which haredi
soldiers were presented as 'hardakim' (an acronym for a light of judgment
haredi) "as chasing haredi children while holding a rifle."
In his defense, Hannania claimed the poster was a
commissioned work which he did not intend to be derogatory. He further claimed
the advertisers who ordered the project later manipulated the caricature
against his will and knowledge.
He also claimed that after he learnt about the change he
demanded they stop publishing the image, but his request were ignored. He
stressed he has no issue with IDF soldiers and was evening willing to make a
donation for their benefit.
As part of a compromise agreed on by both sides, the court
decided that Hannania would meet with the IDF's haredi ombudsman and then write
a letter of apology which will be sent to all the relevant units.
The court also ruled that Hannania would transfer the
images' copyright to Strauber so the latter can sue any person making use of
the image.
Source close to Strauber said Wednesday that he did not file
the lawsuit in an attempt to profit financially from the incident but rather to
stop incitement against haredi soldiers which law enforcement authorities are
reluctant to stop.
"It is absurd that in the State of Israel such an
incitement campaign is being raged against IDF soldiers while the authorities
stand by and do nothing," Strauber told family members, and promised:
"Who ever will publish this image will be sued immediately."
No comments:
Post a Comment