In yet another occurrence of left-wing elements politicizing public life, the huge Strauss company recently pulled its advertisements from the right-wing Channel 14, ostensibly due to a statement made by a guest. The guest panelist appeared on the channel’s The Patriots show and the discussion that day was about the Supreme Court’s decision to knock down the Teveria Law, deeming it a “personal law” since it was advanced to allow the caretaker mayor of Tiveria, Boaz Yosef, to run for mayor in the upcoming municipal elections. The guest panelist commented that if the Supreme Court opposes personal laws, then Yigal Amir, the assassin of former-prime minister Yitzchak Rabin, should be released since personal laws were also enacted against him. The guest was of course, only making a point and not actually advocating for Amir’s release but nevertheless the next day, the Strauss company jumped on the opportunity to further polarize the Israeli public and announced that they would no longer advertise on the TV channel. The move was made despite the fact that the company has never made a similar move in response to the countless outrageous statements over the years on other media outlets. Following Strauss’s announcement, Delek Motors, a large auto import company, joined the fray and announced that it will also no longer advertise on the channel. Channel 14 News journalist Yinon Magal responded by launching a boycott of Strauss products. The boycott spread to one of Strauss’s subsidiaries, the Tami 4 water bar which provides hot and cold filtered water and is specifically geared for frum people as it has a Shabbos setting. So many right-wingers canceled their subscription service for the Tami 4 that the company provided their customer service employees with scripted answers for customers calling to complain about Strauss’s boycott of Channel 14. The boycott has already resulted in the decline of the company’s stock prices. יום מסחר חדשהמניה הכי גרועה *כרגע* במדד הדגל ת״א 35: שטראוס pic.twitter.com/W3zXRp68Hd — ינון מגל (@YinonMagal) August 7, 2023 Last week, a number of leading Dati Leumi Rabbanim signed a letter excoriating Strauss for “using its economic powers in order to control a political agenda.” The letter states: “Channel 14 is the only channel that balances all the other media channels, including the state media, which all broadcast with one voice that is blatantly biased in favor of the left and the opposition. The desire to boycott Channel 14 is reminiscent of the dark times of communist Russia, when it was forbidden to broadcast any opinion other than the one accepted by the atheist communists.” “We cannot let this pass in silence!… We want to announce that from today our yeshivos and educational institutions will not purchase products from companies that boycott public goods in Israel, that harm freedom of expression and the unity of the people. We call on our students and their families to follow our path and avoid purchasing products from commercial companies that attempt to silence others.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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