Israeli Army Radio Sorry for ‘Cannibal’ Jibe Aimed at Ultra-Orthodox
An Israeli public radio station apologized for airing offensive statements about Haredi Orthodox Jews.
In a satirical bit on Army Radio’s late night program, comedian Niv Majar recommended controlling overpopulation through cannibalism.
“We should go ahead and depopulate,” Majar said. “But there’s a paradox here because the people whose population I would like most to reduce are the Haredim, but they probably taste awful, bland.”
Army Radio host Noa Tzinman interjected, “They stink because they eat Matzah balls.”
On Friday, Army Radio released a statement which said the station “rejects offensive statements that were made about the Haredi public on Independence Day eve by a guest interviewee.”
The statements were “inappropriate and represent neither the station’s views nor its staff.” Army Radio apologized to anyone offended by the statements.
The statements, which come amid a heated debate in Israeli society on conscription of Haredi Jews into the Israel Defense Forces — Army Radio’s owner and operator – triggered protests online and at the radio station.
Earlier this week, activists for the lobby group Dosim showed at Army Radio’s Jaffa headquarters and handed out matzah balls to soldiers.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO