Meretz leader in Jerusalem calls charges against bus ad 'libelous'

A Meretz municipal candidate in Jerusalem this week defended her party's controversial anti-Haredi ad campaign. Posters placed on buses showing a blurry black-and-white photo of a Haredi crowd - which Egged later decided to remove - were labeled "anti-Semitic" and "dehumanizing" by some locals, who said the images were reminiscent of the Nazi era. Laura Wharton, the party's number three on its list, said the charges were "absolutely libelous," adding the posters are not against Haredi people but "against the way they've been managing themselves."

The ad placed the Haredi image opposite the head of the local Meretz faction, Pepe Alalu, in front of the colorful Jerusalem skyline. The slogan on the poster reads: "Putting a Meretz end to the haredization of the city."

After MK Avraham Ravitz, of the Haredi United Torah Judaism party, reportedly complained in a letter to the head of Egged about "a hint of racism in the tone of the ad campaign," the company quickly agreed to remove the ad, stating that their buses "cannot be an arena for a brawl between different sectors of the public and therefore we will not lend a hand to negative advertising."

"It's not like we are the overwhelming majority and we are persecuting this tiny minority," said Wharton in an interview this week, accompanied by longtime Meretz member Nechama Ben-Eliahu. "We are the majority of citizens of this city saying we resent this rule of the mob whereby because of election tendencies in 2003 all of [City Hall] is run by people who stampede and crush our legitimate right to have secular schools and secular neighborhoods and whatever."

Ben-Eliahu, however, admitted that some of the criticism against the controversial ad is "accurate." "I wasn't too happy with it," she said, adding that half of her children's families are Ultra-Orthodox. "Some of these things bothered me, too. I am glad that we are doing something different now."

The American-born Wharton explained the campaign is part of an appeal to Anglos to retake the city from the ultra-Orthodox. "Most English speakers in this country come from democracies," she said, "and I think there is a certain awareness that if you win the elections it doesn't mean you can do whatever you want. Unfortunately, I think the Ultra-Orthodox don't see things that way. They figure if they won they won, and whatever they can get away with they should do. I think it's wrong and we have to fight against that."

Over 6,000 Americans, Canadians and British moved to the capital between 2000 and 2006, making English speakers the largest group of newcomers in the city, Wharton pointed out. "Meretz is a Zionist party; we are idealistic, we put a strong emphasis on education, on voter participation and civil engagement." She asserts these are all typical values shared by the English-speaking population.

Wharton, who has a B.A. from Harvard, an M.A. from Hebrew University and is presently working on a PhD in political science, agreed that the anti-Haredi element in Meretz's campaign "has taken a lot of our time because it is of great concern." But she added that she sees it as "a management issue more than anything else," blaming the Haredi council members for many of the city's woes.

Meretz is not fielding a mayoral candidate in Jerusalem for next month's election, but seeks to strengthen its faction in the city council. Meretz holds only three of 31 seats. The mayor and about half the council members are Haredi.

It's all sour grapes

Haredi leaders say they don't understand what all the criticism is about. After all, the city is in a "wonderful state" and even secular institutions such as schools have been working just fine over the last five years, according to Deputy Mayor Yehoshua Pollack. "This is all nonsense," he told Haaretz about Meretz's attacks. "The secular politicians thought Haredim wouldn't be able to run the city properly, he retorted. Now that they see the Haredim succeeding, he added, "they are frustrated."

While calling Haredi political dominance "unfair," Wharton, a 45-year-old mother of two, acknowledged that their political strength is not based on some sort of conspiracy but on simple democratic principles. "In the last elections, the average Ultra-Orthodox neighborhood had a voter turnout of more than 60 percent, while the city average was about 38 percent," she said.

Still, Meretz has made its opposition to "haredization" and the "religious coercion" that allegedly comes with it the cornerstones of its current controversial campaign.

This theme dominates the English-language fliers being circulated, which warn of "the dictates of the extremists." Ben-Eliahu pointed out that Meretz Jerusalem is also involved in environmental projects, making the city more accessible for people with wheelchairs and other less divisive issues.

"But these things are less appealing to the general public," she said. "When we did a survey it pointed to the fact that many people are concerned about the Ultra-Orthodox and therefore we have underplayed our approach to other issues," she told Haaretz. "We have maybe even overemphasized the [struggle against the] Ultra-Orthodox because we want to get in [the city council]."