5, FIVE years ago, Haaretz published a story about Charedis rioting in a plane to Uman, Ukraine because a film was screened. This story is spreading like wildfire on Twitter since yesterday, and has passed through many of our favourite Israel-bashers in less than 24 hours:
https://twitter.com/MJayRosenberg/status/322383944123297792
https://twitter.com/ibnezra/status/322385473135841280
I wonder what the film was? Ultra-Orthodox passengers riot aboard El Al plane over screening of film – haaretz.com/news/ultra-ort…” — Peter Beinart (@PeterBeinart) April 12, 2013
Ultra-orthodox riot on El Al plane to stop movie from being shown:haaretz.com/news/ultra-ort… — Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) April 12, 2013
Religious extremists riot over a film being shown haaretz.com/news/ultra-ort… (via @jeffreygoldberg — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 12, 2013
Note the chain of command from Rosenberg, his cronies and admirers, the guy that has every possible anti-Israel thing stick to him like dog shit, the clueless liberal reporter, and the malicious Guardian anti-Israel reporter. Isn’t twitter awesome?
It all started from this recent quirky image (the reason behind it explained in the Haaretz piece):
Then they started to dig for more dirt, thereupon finding the Haaretz half-a-decade-old piece.
And here from the Haaretz article is the simple answer to why the man has wrapped himself (very briefly) in a plastic bag:
Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, the leader of the Lithuanian Haredi community in Israel, published a halakhic ruling in the past stipulating that Cohens mustn’t fly in this plane because they are prohibited from flying over a cemetery. Later, Rabbi Eliashiv found a solution to this issue, ruling that wrapping oneself in thick plastic bags while the plane crossed over the cemetery is permissible.
It might seem strange to some, it’s temporary and won’t result in the plane exploding and killing all on board so, as religious observances go, it’s quite benign.
