Ultra-Orthodox pundits urge boycott of settlement products

Two popular ultra-Orthodox radio commentators on Tuesday called on their audience to take “revenge” on religious Zionism by boycotting settlement products.

“We need to think twice about supporting those who hate us. It’s about time we stop being suckers,” one of them, Avi Bloom, said, referring to the Jewish Home party’s insistence that it won’t join a government coalition so long as a law isn’t passed to draft the ultra-Orthodox into the military.

The ultra-Orthodox parties are unlikely to consent to such a move.

In an interview with ultra-Orthodox radio station Kol Baramah, Bloom said the agreements between Bennett and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid actually brought about an opportunity for the ultra-Orthodox sector to “finally” separate from the right and the settlers.

“I think at least from an ideological standpoint, if there is something good to come out of this story it is our liberation from the [fake] ‘bear hug’ with the settlers,” he said. “We need to consider the legal implications [of boycotting settlements] and hit their pockets as hard as possible.”

Bloom suggested that support of the settlements is inconsistent with Jewish law.

“The position of Orthodox Judaism is on this subject is well known — not to provoke the nations,” he said.

Bloom also commented on what he called “the surreal discourse” surrounding drafting ultra-Orthodox Israelis into the IDF.

“Last Thursday I was at the settlement of Karnei Shomron and you see there the mighty forces of the military,” Bloom said. “Almost every settler is accompanied by a soldier. These are the same forces that they want to take from the ultra-Orthodox.”

“When Bennett cries about mothers not being able to to sleep at night, you can come and ask him by what right does he not allow Tel Aviv mothers, and now ultra-Orthodox mothers as well, to sleep at night because of the need to protect some random outpost,” he said.

During the conversation, another commentator, Yaakov Rivlin, charged that the greatest offender was Jewish Home-affiliated Rabbi Dov Lior, who recently backed the pact between Bennett and Lapid.

“You know who gave us the greatest stab? Rabbi Dov Lior, the leader of the extreme right and his hallucinatory Messianic group, when he signed a document which essentially means excommunicating the ultra-Orthodox community.”

“It’s time to end all these relations with the real estate dealers in the West Bank territories,” Rivlin added.