Jerusalem – Nine haredi (ultra-Orthodox) rioters have been arrested so far during violent protests in Jerusalem on Sunday over the arrest and detention of the grandson of the grand rabbi of the Toldot Avraham Yitzhak hassidic community.
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Several hundred haredi protestors from the extremist communities in the capital took to the streets and blocked several junctions in the haredi neighborhoods, including on Sarei Yisrael, Shmagar and Yirmiyahu streets.
Some of the protestors lay down in front of the traffic, shouted various insults at the police including calling male security personnel “Nazis” and female personnel “shiksas,” Yiddish for a non-Jewish woman and, according to the police, also threw stones at police personnel.
Police and Border Police reacted strongly and in some cases violently to the protestors, with one video showing a protestor forcefully shoved over by a border policeman seemingly without cause.
Police personnel also dealt forcefully with the protestors lying arm in arm in the middle of the junctions, hauling them away, roughing them up and even beating them in order to successfully remove them from the junction.
Water cannons were also deployed to disperse the crowds, although as in many similar protests they had little affect on the determined protestors.
The latest riot is the latest in a long series of such protests against haredi enlistment to the IDF in general and in particular against the arrest of young haredi men from extremist factions for failing to perform the necessary bureaucratic procedures to get their military service exemptions.
All full-time yeshiva students, the overwhelming majority of whom are haredi, are entitled to military service exemptions from the IDF, and the large majority report to the IDF enlistment offices when called up in order to obtain their exemption.
A political breakaway group coupled with other extremist factions have in recent years instructed yeshiva students associated with them to refuse to even present themselves at the IDF enlistment offices to perform the required bureaucratic process to obtain the exemptions, and are automatically classed as deserters.
In numerous occasions such men have been detained by the police for other misdemeanours, frequently in protests against haredi enlistment, and subsequently handed over to the military police and detained in military jail.
Most recently, the grandson of the grand rabbi of one of these extremist groups, the hassidic Toldos Avraham Yitzhak sect, was detained two weeks ago by the military police for failing to report to the IDF enlistment office when called to do so, which led to Sunday’s riots.
According to a statement from the office of Untied Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni, he came to an arrangement with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman that the grand rabbi’s grandson would be released from prison for the upcoming Rosh Hashana holiday on Wednesday.
The Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
In response to the video of the border policeman shoving the protestor to the ground, the police stated that “there were violent disturbances of the public order by hundreds of haredim who rioted, blocked central junctions attacked police, and disturbed the public order in the area.”
The police said that as a result of the stone throwing, seven policemen were injured and required medical attention.
“In response, the police were required to use methods to disperse the riots and to arrest nine rioters, while trying to prevent the continuation of the violent and illegal demonstration and the blocking of the traffic arteries,” said the police in a statement to the media.
The statement added that the incident in the video appeared to show that “force was used which was not necessary for enforcement,” and that the incident would be passed on to the police’s department for investigating police personnel to evaluate if disproportionate force was used.
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All those behaving violently should remain incarcerated over Rosh Hashana. I would hope the system can provide them with a place to daven together, a shofar, sefer Torah. They might also have meals with their customary simanim. But this violent behavior needs to have its consequences – it is a colossal chilul Hashem.
Go get a job instead of protesting. Stop blaming the ar,y and tzionim for all your woes. maybe instead of coming to america to shnor for kids chasana some of these yershulaimis should go to work.
And no you do not need to go to the army under the current law if you are over 24. So instead of protesting pick up your heinous and gi arbtin.
And yes make sure to learn every few second you have as torah is the ikkur.
The free ride is over. Looks like pretending to sit in yeshiva while avoiding responsibility didn’t even teach them derech eretz
Theese spoiled rotten wild animals think that they are the rulers,they are so spoiled that they go crazy from having it so good so when they are told to do something for the country they live in they go bunkers, they live of handouts and government welfare the same government they curse and so despise this is the height of insanity, somene has to hold them responsible.
Arabs…. No not the policemen…..
To #4 - Actually, the way the Israeli police behaved this time was mild, compared to what they did on the night of March 7, 1981, prior to Havdalah. Then, the Israeli police staged a massive raid (several hundred cops were involved) on the Toldos Aharon Shul in Mea Shearim. They tear gassed the place, broke the doors down, and beat without mercy elderly men, women, and others. They broke the bones of dozens of Hareidim, and hauled many off to jail. In addition, they destroyed many holy objects in the Shul. It was a shanda, and it reminded me of Kristallnacht, in 1938. The raid was conducted under the behest of Teddy Kollek, who hated the ultra-orthodox. The news of that incident was censored; the few news stories which were published were sanitized to make it look, as if the hareidim were the aggressors. It was a shanda, and it still bothers me to this day!
In my opinion not enough force is being used against these criminally insane traitorous and ignorant savage gangsters and hoodlums,in any other normal country this would be treated as an insurection and high treason, these animals and their so called leaders need to be given very long prison sentences or better yet deported to their friends in Gaza,Rammalah or Teheran.
Actually we should not be surprised by the animalistic behavior of these hoodlums,after all CHAZAL tell us that ” BATEILAH MEIVI LUDAI SHIMUM”
these empty people who don’t work and don’t learn don’t help defend their own families and their own country,these gangster are literally going out of their minds from boredom and this is the ugly result
As a chareidi Jew myself,i am utterly embarrassed by the behavior of these animals.
CHAIM
The frum kids that go into the army come out frum. The army experience strenghtens their emuna in Hashem and they have a better appreciation for life.
The chareidim are afraid to go into the army because they will turn out to be goyim when they are finished. This tells me that the chareidi education system is worthless. All the years that they have spent learning was for naught because they will forget it and starting eating chazer on the first day .
This is why pacifism is the best, no need to serve. Anyway the Zionists are in serious decline so why re arrange chairs on the titanic and join their treif army
Fighting so they do not have to fight? Protesting a state that protects them? This seems odd.
To #18 -Longwave- You can google that horrible pogrom online; there was no excuse for the Israeli police in 1981 to beat elderly men, women, and children, in Shul on Shabbos (and break bones), because they were angry at the Hareidim. In fact, that raid was originally reported by the Jewish Press, which is a very good source, for events occurring in EY. I compared that event to Kristilnacht, as in 1938, the Nazis raided and destroyed Shuls, as well as private businesses. I’m sorry if the truth hurts, but facts are facts. It should be noted that those who were beaten in Shul were davening, and were not throwing rocks. How would you like it if on Yom Tov, the American police broke into a Shul, and started indiscriminately beating Jews, because they were after some Jews? If it was you who were on the receiving end of the night clubs, you would have a different opinion!