Haredi rioting
Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men continued rioting in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim quarter last night. Last week they rioted over the opening on shabbat of a private parking lot, this week they are rioting over the arrest of a haredi woman for mistreating her child.
The parking lot clash arose when the Jerusalem municipality decided to open a city-owned parking lot on shabbat in order to accomodate the many tourists and visitors to Jerusalem who are not religious Jews and who travel there on shabbat. Until now there has been insufficient parking for them. This lead to the haredi riots that closed the main thoroughfare of Bar Ilan Street. In order to placate the rioters, Jerusalem Mayor Barkat changed the venue to the private Carta lot, that had been used in the past until it was closed. However, this change did not satisfy the rioters, and so the trash container burning and the throwing of stones, even on shabbat itself, continued.
This has resulted in a huge negative reaction, even by orthodox Jews, who see the hypocrisy in trying to prevent secular Jews from breaking the shabbat by rioting and throwing stones on shabbat. If this doesn't break the rules and tranquility of shabbat, what does? Also, why should these haredim be concerned to control what secular Jews do on shabbat. If anything it will make the non-religious even more antagonistic to the Jewish religion if is supposedly allows this kind of violence. It should be noted that the rioters obtain the permission of their Rabbis for their actions before they proceed.
Now the rioting is over the arrest of a haredi woman for deliberately starving her 5 year old child. She is the mother of 7 children, and her youngest was suspected of having cancer because he was extremely malnourished. But, the doctors could find no actual cancer, so they filmed the mother when she was alone with the child and saw her deliberately disconnect his feeding tube. It appears that she has been deliberately starving the child for ca. 3 years. The doctors diagnose "Munchhausen by proxy" syndrome, a mental condition where the mother deliberately harms her child in order to draw attention and sympathy to herself. This is a well known syndrome and there is no reason to believe that haredim are less prone to it than other people.
One would think that people motivated by moral teachings would be more concerned with the safety and recovery of the child, who has been so cruelly treated, than with the mother. But, the haredim are acting politically, because many of them oppose the Jewish State of Israel, and are against any interference of the State in what they see as their own affairs, such as breaking of shabbat and arrest of their members. It should also be noted that not all haredi groups are involved in this rioting, some groups, particular the Edit Haredim, that includes the notorious Neturei Karta, who are virulently anti-Zionist, are the leaders in many of these anti-Israel riots.
These riots are not small affairs, due to the solidarity of the haredim they can call 10,000 men onto the streets (women generally are not allowed to riot), and they engage in direct violence against secular onlookers and the police. Last night 20 of them were arrested, and the Mayor declared that City services, including the payment of welfare at City offices in Mea Shearim, would be discontinued. Today the news is that the boy is recovering physically from his starvation, although his mental condition is not known, and the mother is still under arrest and will not be released immediately as the rioters demand. However, she will likely be released soon once she is charged pending a trial. If that ever happens there will likely be even more violent disturbances by the haredi.
The parking lot clash arose when the Jerusalem municipality decided to open a city-owned parking lot on shabbat in order to accomodate the many tourists and visitors to Jerusalem who are not religious Jews and who travel there on shabbat. Until now there has been insufficient parking for them. This lead to the haredi riots that closed the main thoroughfare of Bar Ilan Street. In order to placate the rioters, Jerusalem Mayor Barkat changed the venue to the private Carta lot, that had been used in the past until it was closed. However, this change did not satisfy the rioters, and so the trash container burning and the throwing of stones, even on shabbat itself, continued.
This has resulted in a huge negative reaction, even by orthodox Jews, who see the hypocrisy in trying to prevent secular Jews from breaking the shabbat by rioting and throwing stones on shabbat. If this doesn't break the rules and tranquility of shabbat, what does? Also, why should these haredim be concerned to control what secular Jews do on shabbat. If anything it will make the non-religious even more antagonistic to the Jewish religion if is supposedly allows this kind of violence. It should be noted that the rioters obtain the permission of their Rabbis for their actions before they proceed.
Now the rioting is over the arrest of a haredi woman for deliberately starving her 5 year old child. She is the mother of 7 children, and her youngest was suspected of having cancer because he was extremely malnourished. But, the doctors could find no actual cancer, so they filmed the mother when she was alone with the child and saw her deliberately disconnect his feeding tube. It appears that she has been deliberately starving the child for ca. 3 years. The doctors diagnose "Munchhausen by proxy" syndrome, a mental condition where the mother deliberately harms her child in order to draw attention and sympathy to herself. This is a well known syndrome and there is no reason to believe that haredim are less prone to it than other people.
One would think that people motivated by moral teachings would be more concerned with the safety and recovery of the child, who has been so cruelly treated, than with the mother. But, the haredim are acting politically, because many of them oppose the Jewish State of Israel, and are against any interference of the State in what they see as their own affairs, such as breaking of shabbat and arrest of their members. It should also be noted that not all haredi groups are involved in this rioting, some groups, particular the Edit Haredim, that includes the notorious Neturei Karta, who are virulently anti-Zionist, are the leaders in many of these anti-Israel riots.
These riots are not small affairs, due to the solidarity of the haredim they can call 10,000 men onto the streets (women generally are not allowed to riot), and they engage in direct violence against secular onlookers and the police. Last night 20 of them were arrested, and the Mayor declared that City services, including the payment of welfare at City offices in Mea Shearim, would be discontinued. Today the news is that the boy is recovering physically from his starvation, although his mental condition is not known, and the mother is still under arrest and will not be released immediately as the rioters demand. However, she will likely be released soon once she is charged pending a trial. If that ever happens there will likely be even more violent disturbances by the haredi.
posted by Jack Cohen at 10:30 PM
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