Members of the Eida Haharedit extremist haredi group, which does not recognize the Zionist state, hanged dummies dressed as haredi soldiers in Jerusalem during the Purim holiday on Monday.
According to haredi news site Kikar Hashabbat, many residents of the haredi enclave of Meah Sharim objected to the provocative display.
“Besides being in bad taste, this is incitement to murder and harm haredi soldiers.
This is absolutely unacceptable, no matter what,” said one resident, who wished to remain anonymous.
Last year, the group hung a “Haman” doll dressed as a soldier with sidelocks, a beard, and Crocs footwear.
The doll was hung on a rope next to a sign disparaging the IDF.
Israel Police were called to the scene and are expected to remove the dolls.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit approved on Monday a police request to investigate the wave of incitement by anti-Zionist radicals against haredi service members.
Since the Draft Law, which limits the ability of yeshiva students to defer military service, was first proposed in 2013, anti-Zionist elements within the haredi community have targeted haredi soldiers, labelling them “Hardakim” – a portmanteau of “haredi”, “harak” (bug), and “haydak” (germ).
Despite the growing wave of harassment against haredi soldiers, no investigation into incitement by the “Hardak” campaign was ever approved.
During the Purim festival, a number of anti-Zionist extremists hanged haredi soldiers in effigy in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh, prompting outrage among many in the haredi community and leading to renewed requests by police to investigate those responsible.
According to Behadrei Haredim, police opened the first ever investigation into incitement by the “Hardak” campaign, following the Attorney General’s decision.