Jerusalem rabbis 'condemn dog to death by stoning' story was BS

[oberliner]

The story spawned various threads here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1323478

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1320813

Turns out that the story was bogus.

“On 3rd June 2011 we published an item headlined ‘Meah Shearim: A Bet Din (religious court) instructed that a dog be stoned.’ In the article it was reported that a complaint was made to the police by the Israeli animal protection society against the Rabbinical Court for Monetary Matters in Jerusalem.The article also brought a categorical denial of this accusation from the head of the court, Rabbi Yehoshua Levin. The Rabbi said, amongst other things, ‘There is no basis for cruelty to animals, not in Halacha (Jewish religious law) and not in logic.’ According to him, workers from the municipal authority collected the dog from the court. The headline of the article did not reflect the full story and we apologize to the court and its members for the distress caused.”

http://www.periscopepost.com/2011/06/the-israeli-lawyer-dog-was-not-stoned/

[aquart]

1. No shit.

But boy were DUers eager to believe it.

[oberliner]

3. Not just DU-ers

It was one of the most popular stories on a variety of news sites (BBC, I believe, for one) with a plethora of comments.

[Fumesucker]

4. Eh, Poe's Law..

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Poe's_Law

Poe's Law is an axiom suggesting that it's difficult to distinguish between parodies of religious fundamentalism (or, more generally, parodies of any crackpot or extremist belief) and genuine proponents of religious fundamentalism, since they both seem equally insane. Conversely, real fundamentalism can easily be mistaken for a parody of fundamentalism. For example, some conservatives consider noted homophobe Fred Phelps to be so over-the-top that they argue he's a "deep cover liberal" trying to discredit more mainstream homophobes.

[oberliner]

9. Never seen that before

Thanks for sharing.

[amyrose2712]

10. Yeah that. nt

[Ian David]

2. I posted this article, too. Thanks for the heads-up. n/t

[bainz]

5. It could have been true. n/t

[oberliner]

6. Why do you say that?

Is there precedent?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. No, it could not. Jews do not believe in reincarnation. -nt

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. Untrue. Reincarnation can be possible. After purgatory, Judaism does not know what happens

to the soul. I learned this from the wife of an Orthodox rabbi.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

14. I just found this. This rabbi offers reincarnation as a fact- gilgul ha'ne'shamot

http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_o/bl_simmons_reincarnation.htm



snip

There are many Jewish sources dealing with what is popularly
called "reincarnation." In Hebrew, it is called "gilgul
ha'ne'shamot," literally the recycling or transmigration of
souls.

This concept can be compared to a flame of one candle lighting
another candle. While the essence of the second flame comes from
the first one, the second flame is an independent entity.

Still, the new flame contains imperfections inherited from the
initial flame, and it is these imperfections that are to be
corrected.

continued

[tammywammy]

8. kick n/t

[Iggo]

11. Good!

[RandomThoughts]

13. lots of stories here and on the news are bogus.

Although there are patterns to it.

[CTyankee]

15. thank you for posting this. I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone here

could entertain such a fable as true, unless they had VERY limited experience with Jewish friends, colleagues, coworkers, neighbors...

[Bluerthanblue]

16. why hasn't ynet news apologized or retracted the story?

seems like they should.

:shrug:

[oberliner]

17. Perhaps for the same reason they ran the story in the first place?

Their online English news site is something less than a model of good journalism.

In fact, a few years ago, they were going to abandon the project entirely:

Logging off: Ynet to close its English site

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/logging-off-ynet-to-close-its-english-site-1.230955

[oberliner]

22. They have finally taken the story down from their web site

Not sure if they have issued any kind of apology.

[Swede]

18. Ahh,,but the damage has been done.

You can't unblow the whistle.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. ^ ^ ^ THIS.

And Al Gore invented the Internet, and the Clintons killed Vince Foster, and babies in incubators, and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and the Black Panther coloring book, etc etc etc ad infinitum.

People are intrinsically dishonest fucks. Urgh.

[oberliner]

21. Interesting to observe how popular that fake story was

It was repeated and posted on a variety of different sites - often being the story with the most hits and comments on various "reputable" news sources, such as the BBC.

[FLPanhandle]

20. Crazy religious fundamentalists say they aren't that crazy

Well, I'm glad for the dog anyway.