Jerusalem – The police have declared war on secular protest in the city, secular activists claimed after being questioned on suspicion of damaging an eruv in Kiryat Yovel, a neighborhood that has become a flashpoint of the capital’s culture wars.
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An eruv is a set of poles and wires marking the bounds within which religious Jews may carry objects outside their homes on Shabbat. While Jerusalem already has one maintained by the municipality, Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews have set up their own eruvs in several neighborhoods, deeming the municipal eruv insufficient.
The campaign against the Kiryat Yovel eruv is now in its second year, as secular residents view it as a sign that their neighborhood is undergoing unchecked “Haredization.” The activists, seven of whom were questioned, said the poles were erected illegally and without building permits.
Upon taking office, Mayor Nir Barkat established a committee to determine the route of the Kiryat Yovel eruv. But of the hundreds of illegally erected poles, only 20 were ultimately removed.
In recent months, the conflict has heated up again: Protesters have hung Israeli flags and other banners on eruv poles and in some cases cut the wire between them.
“The eruv poles are a symbol,” said activist Nir Pereg. “It’s an attempt to demarcate a public area of a non-Haredi neighborhood. It’s also a symbol of the municipality’s powerlessness.”
Last week, the city’s religious council filed a complaint and police began summoning the activists for questioning.
Ilan Engels, a 25-year-old student who police said had cut the wire, was held in overnight detention Thursday night after refusing to answer questions. An injunction issued against Engels at the police’s request will keep him out of the capital for two weeks.
Engel’s attorneys, Ariel Naor and Shai Weiselberg, pointed an accusatory finger at police.
“I served in the police for 12 years and never came across such a scandalous request,” Weiselberg said in court. “This is a political decision of the worst kind. The police don’t want a confrontation, so they’re trying to maintain quiet.”
Esti Kremayer, an activist leader in Kiryat Yovel, said, “It’s clear that the police’s goal is to deter residents. I told the investigator that everything we did was legitimate political protest.
“The ultra-Orthodox apply pressure as if they’re the ones under attack,” she continued. “Whoever knows what’s happening in Jerusalem understands that that’s absurd. It’s ridiculous that the real criminals in this whole affair, those who put up the poles, are not being questioned.”
Last week, police widened their circle of suspects beyond Kiryat Yovel: On Thursday, they called in Danny Tauber, a resident of the Ramat Beit Hakerem neighborhood. Tauber had campaigned against construction of a mikveh, or ritual bath, in the area.
Tauber was questioned on suspicion of causing property damage by spraying graffiti on the site designated to house the mikveh nine months ago. “The truth is that I wasn’t able to stop laughing throughout the interrogation,” he said.
Yehoshua Shai, chairman of the city’s religious council, is the one who filed the police complaint. “As agreed with the municipality, the eruv was transferred to the religious council’s authority, and damaging it is therefore damaging municipal property,” he said. “There is no difference between breaking it and breaking a school fence.
“When you damage a pole, you can ruin the eruv for all of Jerusalem, and being responsible for that is serious,” he added.
The Jerusalem police said that “The poles were set up legally, and damaging them is illegal. All those involved in causing damage have been questioned. The police treat members of all communities equally, and all those who participate in illegal activity will be questioned.”
Barkat’s office said, “In an effort to resolve the matter, and at the mayor’s request, the municipality took down 80 eruv posts that were put up illegally … The municipality urges residents not to be drawn in by radicals on either side, and reminds them that either setting up or taking down eruv poles independently is a violation of the law, a criminal offense.”
If the eruv was not erected legally, it should be taken down until such time as it can be rebuilt in accordance with the municipal code. As long as the city’s own eruv is in place, all these separate eruvim are a waste of time and money and only serve to trigger conflict. If there is some problem with the city’s one big eruv, than fix it rather than allowing some chareidim to find new issues to complain about.
this just goes to show that there are fanatics on both sides of every issue. There is no need for special eruvs when the city already has one in place but even though its not necessary even for mehadrin, the secular jews have no businss in vandalizing it. Its not a crime to tamper with a redundant eruv but it shows bad midos.
the kid’s name is Inglis, not Engels…
How can an illegally constructed eruv be kosher? From whom did the eruv operators obtain sechirat reshut?
Sechiras reshus is only relevant to goyim, and therefore not relevant in an exclusively Jewish neighbourhood.
Perhaps someone can explain this. In the Deal area, there is an eruv that I believe is on the largest area. It extens from Loch Arbor to the border of Long Branch and Monmouth Beach. It also extends from the ocean to Route 35.
Nevertheless, there are numerous eruvs in Deal, Elberon, Oakhurst. Why are these necessary?
I can understand the large eruv, but these individual eruvs are really quite unattractive.
question. a erev is needed for a walled city? yerushulim is a walled city. does that not make a difference?
So the Jerusalem police are protecting the rights of the Haredi community to have an Eruv? The same police that many posters on this blog refer to an “Nazis”??? Remember this event, the next time the Jerusalem police need to protect themselves from rioters.