Secular parents say hasidim broke through that separation barrier Sunday and tried to take over the area used by the secular tutoring center. As they were doing so, the hasidim also physically assaulted four young female Sherut Leumi (national civilian service) volunteer tutors, screamed at them, said they were not Jews and forced them out of the building.
Above: the Arad school's separation fence
Hasidim Allegedly Physically Attack Girls In Arad, Try To Take Over Secular School
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
It’s like Beit Shemesh all over again.
The Shuvu school building in Arad, Israel is divided in two: half is used by a secular afternoon tutoring center and half is used as a school by hasidim.
The school started its life as a secular public school but enrollment decreased as the population shifted. Last year, the school was closed due to low enrollment and then reopened this year as a haredi school – but only in half of the building.
Over the Sukkot holiday break, the city erected a physical chain link divider fence that created a space for an afternoon tutoring area for secular students from the neighborhood, with a game room and related space, and left the other half of the school and one of the two school playgrounds for the hasidim.
But half of something they had no part of until this year is not apparently enough for the hasidim.
Sunday was the first day the afternoon secular tutoring area was open for business. (Before that, it had been located in a different space elsewhere in the city.)
Secular parents say hasidim broke through that separation barrier Sunday and tried to take over the area used by the secular tutoring center. As they were doing so, the hasidim also physically assaulted four young female Sherut Leumi (national civilian service) volunteer tutors, screamed at them, said they were not Jews and forced them out of the building.
This prompted secular residents to start a public campaign against the haredization of the city called "We don't want to be like Beit Shemesh," the central Israel town that has been wracked by haredi violence and attacks on secular women and girls for several years.
"The girls were in shock. They had a terrible experience and I don't think they'll be coming back at all,” Anita Rosenbaum, who lives in Arad, told Ynet, adding that her son Bar, who is 12-years-old, was also attacked by haredim when he went to use the tutoring center.
"Many men surrounded me; they shouted at me that I'm not a Jew and picked up stones to throw at me and told me to get out of there. I ran home and told my mother what had happened and I told her I wasn't going to come back here,” Bar said.
Zehava Ben-David said her 13-year-old daughter won’t go back to the center, either.
"My daughter doesn't want to come here. She's scared, and I'm not going to send her here. It's now become the fight of all Arad residents. Haredization is a far greater evil than the wave of layoffs in the city,” Ben-David reportedly said.
On Sunday night after the assaults, secular residents went to the school and clashes broke out there with hasidim who broke through the fence separating the two parts of the school.
A large number police responded and dispersed the crowd.
On Monday night a court ordered that the school be closed and both sides barred from going there until a court hearing today on the legality of the separation barrier is completed.
Police are reportedly patrolling the area around the school to prevent any clashes.