As if on cue to my post yesterday, the violence in Jerusalem escalates. And now someone is seriously hurt. From the Jerusalem Post:Ya'acov Klein, 22, (pictured) lay unconscious in intensive care at Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center Monday afternoon with a punctured liver after he was run over by two police trucks during what is being called by veteran haredi activists the most violent street clash in Jerusalem's history…
Without thinking of the potential risk, Klein stubbornly positioned his slim frame in front of a reinforced police vehicle weighing several tons.
The reaction by the protestors is predictable. They think of him as a hero:
Klein is being touted by the haredi community as a fearless holy warrior.
Now - I do not know the details of this particular injury. If the police deliberately ran him over, they are guilty of attempted murder and ought to be punished accordingly. But I somehow doubt that they ran him over on purpose. It was probably an accident in some way.
I’m sure there will be three versions of what happened, the police version, the Charedi version, and the truth. But it almost doesn’t matter what the details are. The blame goes to the organizers and supporters of these protests. It is their Hashkafos that encouraged this young man to walk in front of a moving police truck driven by a secular police officer probably just trying to do his job.
I am so disgusted that I could barely finish reading the Jerusalem Post article that reported this story.
These protestors now have outsiders helping them out:
This past Shabbat violence escalated to new levels with rabbis representing Satmar, Toldot Aharon, and the Breslav hassidic movements personally taking part in the anti-parking lot demonstrations.
Why did this young man do it? He was indoctrinated to do believe that protesting autopsies - or just about anything else about the Zionist Gestapo justifies martyrdom.
How dare I attribute such thinking to this young man? It’s not that hard. Here is the headline of a pashkevil (poster) Satmar just came out with:
'Murderers!' The second attempted murder by the Zionist gestapo.
Here is the actual pashkevil:
More from the Jerusalem Post article:
Klein is the latest and the most serious casualty of an ongoing street war between the Eda Haredit and the police. Although the Eda Haredit controls only a fraction of the rapidly growing haredi population that numbers about 700,000 nationwide, they are respected by many as the most authentic, die-hard ideologues of haredi Judaism...
I am simply aghast at this – no matter how many times I see it! The headline of the article proclaims that ‘there is no end in sight’! The violence keeps escalating.
What will it take to end it?!
I hope it is not government capitulation on the autopsy issue. Not because I think it is justified here. I truly don’t know whether it is or not. But because any government that cannot maintain the peace - is no government at all.
There is a street war right now in Jerusalem. It is between the police on the one hand - and the residents of Meah Shearim and their sympathizers on the other - with the Edah HaCharedis at the helm:
Although the Eda Haredit controls only a fraction of the rapidly growing haredi population that numbers about 700,000 nationwide, they are respected by many as the most authentic, die-hard ideologues of haredi Judaism who diligently maintain their strict dress codes, insular lifestyles and uncompromising fight to protect the delicate religious status quo in Jerusalem.
I hoped ‘many’ doesn’t mean ‘most’. Because if they are the most respected Charedim in Israel, then there is no hope!
Can anyone imagine what it would be like living in Eretz Yisroel with this bunch in charge? If they were to win the ‘war’ with the ‘Zionist Nazis’ and their ‘Gestapo’ police - wresting the reins of government from their control (and didn’t give it all away to the Palestinians)… well let’s put it this way. I think I’d rather live at the North Pole.
