Agudat Israel MK Avraham Shapira claimed Monday that pornographic pictures were the cause of Israel’s alarming highway accident rate and suggested that a day of fasting and prayer be declared to “appeal to God’s mercy to stop the awful slaughter on the roads.”
The pornographic pictures blamed by the Orthodox MK are posters and billboards advertising swim suits or other items of female apparel considered “lewd” by some religious Jews.
“Can someone who sees such pictures drive afterwards?” Shapira asked. Last year ultra-Orthodox zealots in Jerusalem and elsewhere set fire to bus shelters that carried advertising posters they found objectionable.
Shapira spoke during a Knesset debate on the traffic problem which also occupied much of last Sunday’s Cabinet session. In 1986, 415 people died in road accidents and more than 21,000 were injured. The rate of traffic fatalities and injuries has been even higher this year.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
