Ultra-Orthodox Israeli Soldiers Urged To Kill Female Colleagues
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel Police have launched an investigation into signs calling on haredi Orthodox men who are drafted into the Israel Defense Forces to kill female soldiers and commanders.
The signs were found hanging in the haredi Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim on Wednesday, during the holiday of Shavuot.
The poster reads: “Dear yeshiva student. If they take you by force to the army of destruction, you are permitted and must do all of the following things: Take the rifle you have received, kill every female soldier next to you and give her the privilege of killing her rather than letting her transgress. Kill every commander who keeps you by force, kill every recruiter, his seducer and accomplice. Kill yourself out of a decree to not transgress.”
The poster is not signed by any group and is labelled as a “religious ruling.”
Police reportedly suspect the Jerusalem Faction, a fringe haredi Orthodox group, according to the news website Ynet.
Last month, a crowd of ultra-Orthodox men and women burned an effigy of an Israeli soldier in Mea Shearim. Israeli soldiers have been attacked in haredi neighborhoods, a trend which has escalated in recent weeks.
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