A haredi soldier walking on Shmuel Hanavi Street near Mea Shearim in Jerusalem today was attacked by a mob of haredim – the second such attack in the haredi Jerusalem neighborhood this week.
File photo: Haredim stone soldiers in Mea Shearim in July 2011
Another Haredi Soldier Attacked By Haredi Mob In Jerusalem
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
A haredi soldier walking on Shmuel Hanavi Street near Mea Shearim in Jerusalem today was attacked by a mob of haredim, according to a brief report in the Jerusalem Post.
The attackers reportedly yelled slurs at the soldier and “threw objects at him.”
The soldier, who was reportedly not injured, was rescued by the police.
The incident is similar to an attack on a haredi soldier in Mea Shearim Monday night.
In that attack, 100 to 150 haredim attacked the soldier, who was in the neighborhood to visit family and study Torah.
The mob began to beat him and dumped oil and garbage on him.
But the soldier, who reportedly serves in a Homefront Command search and rescue unit, was able to escape and barricade himself in a building, where he called police and changed into civilian clothes.
Riot police and the Yassam police special police commando unit came to rescue the soldier but were stoned by the swelling, raging mob, as were medics who came to treat any injured.
Eventually, police managed to rescue the soldier and whisk him out of the haredi neighborhood.
However the haredi rioting continued.
Police arrested four haredi rioters and said they plan to arrest more based on video footage and photos of the incident.
The IDF’s spokesman later said there had several other similar incidents not publicized in the media in the past several days.
Haredim later claimed they attack the soldier because they thought he was an IDF recruiter.
Over the past several months, attacks against and shunning of haredi soldiers by haredim has become commonplace – and dangerous – prompting haredi soldiers to appeal to the IDF to allow them to wear civilian clothes when they go to haredi neighborhoods to visit family and friends.
[Hat Tip: Burich.]