I still think that it is bad for a society, any society, to encourage people to report each other to the authorities.

We've seen snitch lines in the tax authority, in the Rabbanut for chametz reporting on pesach, and against mashgichim... and now we have a snitch line being opened against yeshiva boys who use smartphones.

According to Bechadrei, a new committee - the "committee for saving yeshiva bochurim" was just inaugurated in Brooklyn. According to the report, because 'bein hazmanim' is a time when the yetzer ha'ra works overtime to convince yeshiva bochurim to buy smartphones and other Internet devices, this new committee has set up a snitch line (malshinon) in order to save the future of these boys.

Thhey call upon the public - whoever spots a yeshiva bochur with a smartphone or other "non-kosher" cellphone, should call the snitch line to report it. They want callers to leave as many details as possible - name of offending yeshiva bochur, name of yeshiva that he learns in, when and where he was spotted with the non-kosher device... information submitted will be dealt with discretion, and will only be handed over to professional askanim (are any askanim professionals?) who deal with at-risk kids.

Snitch lines. When the authorities don't want to do their own work, and prefer to turn people on each other so they will do it for them. Except in this case they are not even authorities. Just people who want to be.

It seems that snitch-lines must be a successful method of the government finding out the information it looks for. Besides for seeming dirty, encouraging citizens to turn on each other, it seems unprofessional - the government should have better methods, it should do its own work. They charge us an awful lot of money in taxes to pay the salaries of lots of government employees - they should be doing their own work and not dumping it on the citizens of the State.

Habayit Hayehudi is opening a new snitch-line. This snitch-line will be targeting mashgichim - kashrut supervisors - of restaurants and other food establishments who supposedly disappear on the job. When this happens, it gives the feeling over to the restaurant owners that the concept of hasgacha is really just a business and nothing to do with kashrut.

The project is being run by the "Secular division of Habayit Hayehudi" and they promise that every case reported will be investigated and passed on the Ministry of Religious Affairs .

If you are curious, the phone number of the snitch-line to report on such mashgichim who do not do their job properly is 052-873-6395.
(source: Israel Hayom)

The "Malshinon", the snitch line, of the tax authority for people to anonymously call in and snitch on others who are not paying their taxes, has been so wildly popular that the city of Haifa decided to operate their own snitch line. For Chametz.

According to NRG, the laws against selling chametz in public during Pesach have never before been enforced in Haifa. stores openly sold chametz. This year, City Hall has decided to put an end to it. They have instructed city inspectors to be very strict about handing out fines to businesses selling chametz, and are encouraging residents of Haifa to call the municipal line, 106, to report any business discovered selling chametz.

City Councilman Shai Blumenthal says that Haifa is a complex city, as it is a city mixed with Jews and non-Jews, and in the non-Jewish neighborhoods selling chametz is permitted. The city inspectors have instructed the merchants as to where selling chametz is allowed and where it is not.

Depending on the success of the snitch line for chametz, we will have to run a contest to come up with other great ideas for usage of a snitch line.