Blue and White Party Slammed for ‘Antisemitic Hate’ Ad Targeting Religious Right

JERUSALEM – The Blue and White party has come under fire for its latest ad campaign which has been denounced as “antisemitic” and full of “hate and incitement.”

The ad, which ironically appeared in several religious publications, attacks ultra-Orthodox religious Zionists, known in Israel by the portmanteau Hardal.

Hardal is also the Hebrew word for mustard. The ad features the Israeli flag stained with what appears to be mustard and underneath a slogan reads, “So much mustard there’s no longer any taste.” The meaning is clear: The religious Zionist faction has been “overrun” by its more extreme fringes, who traditionally vote for right-wing parties – Yamina, in this election cycle.

Blue and White’s tasteless – pun intended – ad was part of its bid to pull in the more moderate religious right voters who are often seen as a swing voters.

Defense Minister and Yamina leader Naftali Bennett, slammed Blue and White over the campaign, taking to Facebook to post that he too was “proud to be a Hardal.”

“Blue and White, look for your votes elsewhere,” Bennett wrote. “Sometimes you stand for a secular unity government, sometimes you say you’re ‘neither right nor left’ and today you are ‘warning us about the hardalnikim.’