1.
This week, a play made headlines that presented the ultra-Orthodox sector in a very ugly way, which for some reason is stuck like a bone in the throats of many people.
In the play, the residents of the new neighborhood are excited to see the old houses in the neighborhood replaced by new ones. They hope to meet their new neighbors, but to their dismay, they discover that the new neighbors are, no less, no more, Haredi!
They swallow the pill and try to live with them anyway, doing everything in their power to be accepted by these Haredim and failing, because the Haredim, like Haredim, in the language of the show, are simply unattainable.
This was very offensive to many viewers, who were furious and shouted: "What anti-Semitism, since when does a Jew behave like this towards a Jew? This is reminiscent of things that were said to Jews in various places years ago.".
A few days later, young ultra-Orthodox protesters took to the streets. I passed by the central bus station in Jerusalem and discovered crowds taking to the roads and trying to disrupt traffic.
These young men, who came to protest and demonstrate like other factions and currents who demonstrated in many demonstrations that took place in our country, were attacked with water hoses with terrible force, and surrounded by female police officers who might be the ones to do the job. They were trampled under the horses' hooves and thrown in all directions, as if they were annoying bees.
I did not see the same fervor of pity for these protesters from their Lithuanian brothers, who only yesterday voted in the Knesset for one letter, as one man, and suddenly became complete enemies.
Many of them arrived at the scene and, in a hostile tone, began to argue with the protesters, which quickly turned into an unnecessary fight.
You don't agree with the path? Of course. But from here to getting into fights with the protesters, and cursing them from every platform with the lowest level of words?! To the point where someone even went so far as to suggest setting dogs on them?
What is the difference between the secularists who don't want the Haredim in their territory, as is evident in the play, and young men, from the same community, who are happy to see their friends who only yesterday would have shared a room with them in yeshiva, maybe even today?!
Why don't we know how to make a distinction? To love the Jew because he is a Jew, and not agree with his opinions?
And how can we tomorrow complain to someone else who, in our opinion, is acting in an "anti-Semitic manner" towards our sector?
2.
I know it's not very popular today to justify police officers' hostile actions against protesters.
I'm just asking the following question in good faith: What are police officers supposed to do when they come to repel a demonstration that is disrupting traffic? Any demonstration? Probably to remove the rioters!
And if these don't go away in normal ways? Repel them with greater force.
And what if they are still rioting, pulling horses' tails, jumping onto the road under the wheels of cars, and annoying the police in every possible way?
To employ other, more effective measures permitted by law.
And when you use water hoses, or rush with horses into a square crowded with people – unpleasant things also happen.
It's like I tell parents: "If the child doesn't go to the bathroom to bathe himself. Take him in your arms whether he wants to or not. It's not pleasant for him? Right! So what? Give up bathing? So what? Repeat the same sentence two thousand times and not succeed?""
The same goes for the road.
Protesters don't move from the middle of the road and cars rush on their way? The country needs and must continue to live.
There is no doubt that the police must remove lawbreakers, no matter what color their skin is or what party they belong to. As long as they do so within the legal framework, what are we to complain about?
Sometimes it's unpleasant, sometimes it's painful, of course it is, but is it possible to complain to someone who did what needed to be done?
3.
With great pride we show that a policeman returned a lost item to its owner. And what do we want, that a policeman also will not return a lost item?
When I was a little girl, we had a book that told what a police officer's job was.
Among the other tasks and assignments assigned to him was to return a lost item to its owner.
When you look at a police officer as someone who comes to flog, it's hard to see him as the same person who does the most humane thing that any private person would do, without getting headlines, and gets excited about returning a lost item.
I wish we always celebrated the beautiful deeds of people. But think about it, would anyone in the past even talk about the human and obvious act of returning a lost item to its owner by any person, let alone a police officer?
Let us pray that one day a wolf will live with a lamb, a stake will dance with a falcon, and only a flail will be given to the trampled.
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