Despicable
"Sickening Celebration": Online Hate Speech Targets Haredi Babies who Died in Jerusalem Daycare
Instead of sympathy, the Jerusalem daycare disaster that killed two babies has sparked a wave of online hate speech celebrating the tragedy. Opposition Leader Yair Lapid condemns the "heartbreaking" politicization of dead babies.
As the Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) community reels from a tragic disaster at a Jerusalem daycare that left two bebies dead and dozens injured, a wave of vitriolic hate speech has erupted on social media, with some users openly celebrating the deaths of the children.
The tragedy, which occurred in the Romema neighborhood, has exposed severe safety violations, including reports of babies sleeping in closets and bathrooms due to overcrowding. However, while most of the nation expressed shock and sorrow, the incident also unleashed a torrent of sectarian abuse online.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid strongly condemned the phenomenon, calling the comments "shocking."
Social media platforms were flooded with comments expressing joy over the tragedy, utilizing the incident to attack the Haredi lifestyle, exemption from military service, and reliance on state subsidies.
One particularly graphic comment read: "May there be more like this. All this 'Dossi-eida' [a derogatory slur for the religious] should be minimized to the minimum."
Another user wrote with apparent malice: "This is without counting the children that each one of them would have eventually produced."
Other comments linked the tragedy to political and social tensions: "The Romema neighborhood is full of draft dodgers... they set up pirate kindergartens without permits, pay no taxes, and now the authorities have to treat them at the expense of other citizens." Another comment stated, "I prefer to deport the Haredim, but this is good too."
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid issued a statement urging the public to separate political disagreements from human tragedy.
"I share in the grief of the families of the two toddlers who lost their lives today in the disaster in Jerusalem," Lapid wrote. "I am shocked by the harsh responses on social networks regarding two-month-old and four-month-old babies. The death of children is terrible and heartbreaking; it must not be dragged into any political argument."
The incident has highlighted the deepening fracture in Israeli society, where even the death of infants is utilized as ammunition in the ongoing cultural and political wars regarding the Haredi sector's integration into the state.