Jerusalem – Unidentified assailants assaulted an IDF officer who came to visit soldiers in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim on Friday.
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The officer, who serves in the Givati infantry brigade and even took part in last summer’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, drove in to Mea Shearim to visit two of his charges who are beset by economic woes.
After local residents noticed the officer in his army uniform, he was accosted by a group of would-be assailants, though he managed to evade harm by fleeing the area.
Some vandals then proceeded to smash the windshields and windows of the car belonging to the officer.
The incident was reported by Channel 2. Shortly afterward, the officer filed a complaint with police.
The officer’s mother, a woman identified as “Yael,” told Channel 2 that her son “was hit a few times.”
“He told me that it’s not his body that hurts, but his heart,” she said. “He came away traumatized a bit. He said they tried to lynch him. They threw stones, eggs, used diapers. Some of them even tried to overturn his car. Nobody intervened to try and stop it.”
“He paid a visit to two soldiers who live in Mea Shearim,” she said. “These soldiers are of limited financial means. He went there to see how he could help them with more benefits.”
“At the entrance to the apartment building where they live, two women stood there,” she said. “They were unhappy that he was entering the building while wearing a uniform and the purple beret of Givati.”
“When he came out of the building, he was met by a raging mob,” she said. “He stepped toward his car, closed the door, and locked it. They tried to get at him and pull him outside. They had the look of terrorists in their eyes. They wanted to lynch him.”
Israel’s political and military establishment expressed shock and dismay on Friday hours after the incident.
“In recent years, the IDF has enlisted into its ranks thousands of ultra-Orthodox, assigning them significant tasks and roles throughout the army and its various units,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement.
“The IDF views this incident with gravity,” the statement read. “The army denounces and condemns any attempt to harm its officers and soldiers who work day and night to protect the country and its citizens.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Friday with Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich about the incident. The premier released a statement to the press saying that he was closely monitoring the police efforts to locate the assailants.
“This is an outrageous incident,” Netanyahu said. “These lawbreakers who raised a hand against an IDF officer must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
“IDF service is a source of pride,” the prime minister said. The IDF is a people’s army that protects us all. The soldiers serving in it represent a number of communities that make up Israeli society. That is how it has always been, and that is how it will be.”
“A line has been crossed,” tweeted Aryeh Deri, the chairman of the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Shas movement. “The assault of an IDF officer at the hands of Jewish extremists is an act of terrorism.”
“A grave act was committed, and I demand that the police do all in its power to bring those criminals to trial as soon as possible,” Deri tweeted.
For once, I agree with Deri. This is a terrible chilul Ha-Shem to assault a Jewish man just because he happens to serve in the IDF. The animals who did it should be tried by a court of law, imprisoned, and then after their reliease deported to Waziristan where they belong.
What incredible Chutzpah. After all the garbage Aryeh Deri and Co. have spouted at the IDF, he has the nerve to complain. And I like the part about how he now wants the police to be the ones to intervene. How about if HE does something to get control of these guys. And what is he doing tweeting?
A generation of ignoramuses and ingrates has spawned. They are outwardly pious and mechanically go through the daily rituals but fail to internalize Torah values. They are drones, devoid of love, sensitivity, understanding and spirituality.
Which Rebby condones this? AND WHEN WILL THEY SPEAK ABOUT THIS?
Maybe we should resettle the residents of Mea Shearim on Jewish ancestral land in the West Bank. Without the protection of the evil IDF of course. They can throw diapers at terrorists.
Ki nvala asah byisrael vchain lo yaiuseh
The rabbonim need to unanimously condemn these terrorist hooligans. The chilul Hashem they have made is enough to make us rais kriyah! disgusting!
It’s the rhetoric in the communities. Instead of thanks and honor to Tzahal, they spout unspeakable things against the very people who protect them. Ain somchim al ha ness. We need Tzahal. Period. These people need to be reeducated. Their leaders need to speak up. As you know, if a young person can lift a hand against a man from Tzahal, what will prevent him from lifting a hand at the Rav he doesn’t agree with. Oh, yeah, that has already happened.
there is surely more to the story. period. there are two sides to every story not including the absolute true story.
Why is it that those who would attack a soldier in the IDF, or those who stand by and do nothing to stop such an outrage, think they are somehow acting lkovod shamayim. Chazal clearly tells us that because of misplaced piety in not accepting a Roman korban, and silence in the face of a social slight to a party guest, we suffered the loss of our Bais Hamikdosh and continue to endure two thousand years of golus.Enough! Shame on us all for enabling such a chillul kvod Shamayim. No shittus or chumros can allow for such a disgrace. If you disagree with national policy, VOTE.Then go daven, learn and behave in a manner that is warm and welcoming to our estranged brothers and sisters.Derochahu darchei noam. We CAN change minds with true Torahdik behavior, not the actions of a mindless mob.
Shocked? None of us should be shocked – we’ve seen the contempt that this extreme segment of the chareidi community has for the IDF, for the government of Israel, and for any Jews (even frum ones) who don’t believe exactly as they do. And we’ve seen the violence too. What is so sad is that our own community and leadership refuses to call them out – if had the will, we’d have the way. Sadly, the frum community as a whole has been sliding the way of the Taliban…and here we are.
who cares what part of Meah Shearim did this? When they catch them, and they will, they should be deported just as they do to Arabs. As a matter of fact, these animals, and that’s what they are, are much worse. The Arabs at least hate you because you are Jewish and they are not.These animals hate you because you are Jewish but not their ‘brand’ of Jewish. Much worse.
stop the welfare state and end the parasites lunch and all will be fine.
# 4, 5, and 7 are so right. Who do these people think will help them if one day, G-d forbid they need real protection?
Although this was a truly shocking and terrible event, let’s remember where it started. Previously, soldiers walked all over and were looked at fondly. However, when Yair Lapid went on a vicious campaign to force chareidim into the IDF, vilified them as leaches and parasites, and threatened jail terms for those resisting, the entire dynamic changed. Now the IDF became the enemy who was trying to corrupt the chareidi youth. This wonderful soldier who was trying to help became the representative of the wicked IDF. It is no excuse, but let’s assign blame to the ones who instigated this terrible rift in our society.
Even if the Meah Shearimniks are against the Zionist government , this was still an uncalled for display of chillul Hashem aand sin-as chinom. It is just plain disgusting. I consider myself an anti Zionist Chareidi but, I would never assault someone who may or may not represent the Zionist government.
reply to #21
and if it WAS on Shabbos?? that gives an excuse for people to act like that??
theres a family of neturei karta cult members that live across the street from me that sprayed the Israeli flag hanging on my house for yom hazikaron, red. this is in America people. its time to end this insanity.
I don’t condone violence, especially against a well-intended fellow who came to help his subordinates.
That said, this story can’t be looked at in isolation if you want to understand what and why just happened. Chareidim were there centuries earlier than tzionim, at least from the time when Vilna Gaon’s ztz”l talmidim settled in Yirushalayim in the mid-1700s, and there already were some there whom today we will call chareidim, and they maintained their presence there for centuries in spite very difficult rulers and terrible economic privations.
Then, more than two centuries later, came the tzionim with their fighting forces and their socialist/communist ideologies, and rapidly remade the city and the country in the secular image. Is it unreasonable to see them as the hostile occupation regime?
But at least soldiers were not assaulted, just resented. And then, in the last 3-4 years, things got to be worse than ever since the late 1940s. The tzionim openly threaten to take our precious young away from Torah and force them into the immoral confines of their military, under the threat of imprisonment.
That we will not obey.
Gut shabbos.
Ha! Ha! Ha! Let me take a sip of wodka and a bite of pork parowka before I comment on this…
…Let’s see: In a free Jewish state of Israel, a mob of religious Jews almost carries out a pogrom of a fellow Jew because he’s an officer in the Jewish army responsible for the security of that state (!)
Other religious Jews immediately find excuses and “nuances”:
– “Maybe he drove around during Shabbos”
– “there mush be more to the story”
– “let’s assign blame to the ones who instigated this terrible rift in our society”
– “Is it unreasonable to see them [the tzionim] as the hostile occupation regime?”
…”hostile occupation regime”…”immoral confines of their military”…I guess galut in Europe was not so bad after all?
Ok, done with the sarcasm. Stupid things happen everywhere and I see that most of commentators here condemn it. But it IS chillum Hashem…
This makes no sense.
I agree they should not have “lynched” him, though I doubt they were going to do that.
Regardless, why couldn’t the guy have simply worn plainclothes and not instigated these people by walking into their neighborhood with that offensive symbol of that offensive political entity?