A gang of haredi teens and young adults allegedly physically attacked a haredi soldier earlier today in the haredi Beit Yisrael neighborhood of Jerusalem
Haredim throwing stones at police in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem in July 2011
Last updated at 7:28 pm CDT
Another Haredi Soldier Attacked By Haredim In Jerusalem
Shmarya Rosenberg • Failedmessiah.com
A gang of haredi teens and young adults allegedly physically attacked a haredi soldier earlier today in the haredi Beit Yisrael neighborhood of Jerusalem.
Police said the haredi uniformed soldier was in the neighborhood to visit relatives when a gang of haredi teens threw vegetables and garbage at him, Ynet reported.
The soldier was reportedly rescued unharmed by the police after he managed to escape his assailants and hide inside a relative's home in the neighborhood. His haredi assailants reportedly escaped.
Police searched the area for the alleged assailants but made no arrests.
"There were many people there. They threw stuff at me, cartons, vegetables. I saw it wouldn't stop so I just called the police… [and when police arrived] they all ran to their holes…I go back to the northern border, guard so people will not enter and harm anyone – no matter who you are, haredi, secular, religious, Jew, Arab, and this is what you get – so there's a hard feeling.…[but] I'm not scared. This is Jerusalem, my capital just as it is there's. I'm really not going to stop walking around it," the haredi soldier told Ynet.
The haredi teens also yelled "Nazi" and "hardak" (a derogatory term for a haredi soldier) as they attacked him, the haredi soldier said.
Similar attacks – some much more violent and one involving a mob of about 150 haredi assailants – egged on by anti-haredi-soldier incitement from haredi politicians, haredi media and haredi rabbis, have occurred with alarming frequency in haredi neighborhoods all over Israel since the Knesset has begun to pass a new draft law that will for the first time compel haredi yeshiva students to serve in the military for the first time as all other Jewish Israelis must do.