Israel Police say that dozens of haredim threw stones at two haredi IDF soldiers in Jerusalem's haredi Mea She'arim neighborhood Sunday night. The assailants also burned garbage dumpsters during the riot.
Haredim stone police in Mea Shearim 7-13-2011
Originally published 11:01 pm CDT on 5-19-2013
Dozens Of Haredim Reportedly Stone 2 Haredi IDF Soldiers In Mea Shearim
Shmarya Rosenberg • Failedmessiah.com
Israel Police say that dozens of haredim threw stones at two haredi IDF soldiers in Jerusalem's haredi Mea She'arim neighborhood Sunday night, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The haredi assailants also burned garbage dumpsters before fleeing.
Government firefighters had to put out the flames.
No injuries were reported.
Thursday night a massive haredi anti-draft protest staged by the virulently anti-Zionist Edah Haredit haredi umbrella organization and followers of “mainstream” haredi breakaway leader Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach turned violent. Haredi rioters threw rocks, glass bottles, a smoke grenade and other objects at police and a small group of counter-protesters in front of the main IDF induction and recruitment center in Jerusalem's Romema neighborhood. Those counter-protesters were haredi IDF soldiers who came on their own to defend the the induction and recruitment center.
In December, a group of high school students in an IDF preparatory program came in uniform to Mea Shearim as invited visitors of a hasidic rebbe as part of their course of study. The students were attacked by haredim who threw garbage and dirty diapers at them.
In April, a leading Satmar posek (rabbi who decides cases of Jewish law) in Jerusalem called on haredim to evict any person who enters a synagogue or yeshiva study hall wearing an IDF uniform.
"If a Jew enters a study hall [synagogue or yeshiva] with such clothing, haredim should yell at him, ‘Tamei [unclean one], get out of here!’ These clothes defile…To pray with those clothes is like praying while making the sign of the cross, may God save us. These clothes proclaim: ‘Heresy!’” Rabbi Moshe Zev Tzaurger wrote.
But what should people do if the uniformed soldier refuses to leave?
“…Approach him and tell him, ‘Get out, sheigetz!,” Rabbi Tzaurger insisted.
In early May haredi IDF soldiers received death threats in their mailboxes.
The letters labeled IDF uniforms “tamei” (ritually and spiritually impure) and warn that if the haredi soldiers are not out uniform and away from the impure military bases in two weeks, an all-out war will be fought against the haredi soldiers “at the correct time and place.” The letters also warn haredi soldiers that this is a “warning on your life.”
Not surprisingly, some haredi soldiers have recently asked to be allowed to return to their home neighborhoods for social visits wearing civilian clothes rather than the mandatory IDF uniform because of increasing violence against them from haredim.
The IDF has so far refused to grant those requests.
[Hat Tip: Ruthie.]