"Anyone who opens his mouth to protest is dragged by the arm to prison," Eidah Charedis’ poster says, noting that in the past two weeks a number of Beit Shemesh’s and Jerusalem’s “beloved” – violent haredim who attacked little girls, women and police – were arrested on what Eidah Charedis claims are false charges.
Eidah Charedis followers stoning police in Mea Shearim, July 2011
Eidah Charedis Condemns Arrests Of Haredim Who Attacked Women And Girls And Who Stoned Police
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Eidah Charedis, the ultra-Orthodox umbrella organization based in Mea Shearim, sharply criticized the government’s efforts to stop illegal haredi gender segregation on public buses and in public spaces. While doing so, it also attacked the government for arresting violent haredim.
The Jerusalem Post reported that in a poster released last night on the Internet, Eidah Charedis condemned the government, which it said had "recently burdened the world of the God-fearing” with arrests and by destroying the gender segregation Eidah Charedis illegally enforced.
"Anyone who opens his mouth to protest is dragged by the arm to prison," Eidah Charedis’ poster says, noting that in the past two weeks a number of Beit Shemesh’s and Jerusalem’s “beloved” – violent haredim who attacked little girls, women and police – were arrested on what Eidah Charedis claims are false charges.
The vast majority of those arrested are members of the Sicarii gang, the “extremist” haredi criminal organization that is supposedly separate from Eidah Charedis but in reality often functions as Eidah Charedis’ enforcers.
The poster also noted that “an important yeshiva student" had recently been convicted and sentenced to two years in prison in what Eidah Charedis called a campaign to silence haredi protests. This appears to be a reference to Shmuel Weisfish, a leader of the violent Sicarii gang, who was convicted of assault and other crimes and who was sentenced two weeks ago by "Israel's evildoers...after they have taken the government and authority for themselves."
The religious court of Eidah Charedis, Badatz Yerushalayim, is one of the largest kosher supervisors worldwide. Its seal appears on products that include Osem snacks and other Israeli products exported to North America and Europe.
The money Eidah Charedis earns from kosher supervision is used to fund other Eidah Charedis activities – including, some allege, funding the violent criminal activities of many of the “extremists” Eidah Charedis is now defending.
Eidah Charedis also receives large amounts of charity donations from haredim outside of Israel, especially from Satmar hasidim in Brooklyn, Kiryas Joel, Montreal and Antwerp, and the it appears much of that money is tied to the continuation of the violence and Eidah Charedis' backing of the Sicarii.
Update 1-11-2012 2:04 am CST – Here's another choice quote from the Eidah Charedis letter translated by the Jerusalem Post:
[The arrests of violent haredim who attacked police, women and girls is]
“another chapter in the worst of all the exiles, the one imposed by the evil people of Israel, who, having taken authority and government for themselves, now harbor a deep jealousy for those who fear God, who are increasing greatly and who serve God in truth and purity,”