Monday, nighttime. At this time in WhatsApp groups, there is already a lull, even in these tropical days, but not during this period. Today, the bad news hits with fury and the WhatsApp groups do not rest for a moment, suddenly another news about a soldier who was injured, the event is in full swing and not all the details are yet known.
Slowly it becomes clear that a soldier was injured, an officer from the south, but the attack is not on the turbulent southern border, nor on the tense northern border. This time it is in the Kasbah, not in Nablus or Hebron, this time it is again in the Shteblach Ramat in Beit Shemesh.
Just like the lynching that terrorists in Ramallah carried out on IDF soldiers who accidentally ended up there, so it happened in this case. This is an officer who is not a resident of the city, who came to Beit Shemesh for a few hours in the midst of the war to visit his wife and children who had come from the south. The officer accidentally ended up in the dangerous area where an ultra-Orthodox soldier is a product to be chased and lynched, and thank God this time it ended mainly with the smashing of his car windows. The officer and his two small children who were with him were removed in time by an MDA volunteer who arrived at the scene and their lives were saved in time.
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To be clear, this is not a one-time act of a handful whose actions can be ignored, this is not another act of individuals who do this on their own accord, contrary to the opinion of their elders.
It's not a handful, and it's not isolated.
This is a sector that sucks hatred from its mother's breast and is educated in this way by its rabbis, whom it chooses in turn according to their extremism, all in the name of preserving Yiddishness. When any of the rabbis of that sector does not follow the path they set, he is immediately defined as a collaborator with the enemy and is subject to boycotts and floggings like one of the laity.
Last year, we were horrified when the walls of Haredi neighborhoods were adorned with a colorful and sharp campaign calling for the blood of Haredi soldiers to be shed. The campaign proved successful and even led to results: In the past year, there have been many cases of violence against soldiers wearing kippahs in Haredi neighborhoods in general and Beit Shemesh in particular. Unfortunately, some of the cases were not reported to security officials, who repeatedly show weakness and do nothing to protect those soldiers.
When the hate campaign was launched last year, Haredi religious leaders who claim to be there to represent the entire Haredi public were asked to condemn the campaign, but they twisted and said that they condemn all violence against any person – but did not condemn the campaign. In doing so, they are complicit in the shedding of the blood of these soldiers, and they cannot today say that our hands did not shed this blood.
It's time for the Haredi media, which knows how to turn a fly into an elephant, to rally to condemn not only the actions but also these people from the camp. It's important to note that this group is not 'Beitar Jerusalem', where every racist snarl at a player of Arab origin is explained away as the excesses of a handful of fans. This is about a section of the public that leads us all by the nose and makes each of us Torah-observant people appear as extremists.
Where is the chairman of the Education and Modesty Watch?
Why does the chairman of the Holiness and Education Watch, who insisted on not condemning the creators of the campaign, who at every opportunity at every microphone explains who is not Haredi in his misery, not now announce in a widely read article that that population group is not part of the Haredi street in all its shades? Alternatively, he can explain why they are part of the sector and that he agrees with this terrorist activity.
It is impossible not to be outraged by the law enforcement leaders who have shown unparalleled personal incompetence in protecting the lives of ultra-Orthodox soldiers from rioters. The police, which opened a belated investigation following the incitement campaign, have so far not brought anyone to justice. There are no known arrests in the attack on ultra-Orthodox soldiers, and we, the ultra-Orthodox residents of Beit Shemesh, law-abiding citizens who do not take justice for ourselves, expect the Israel Police to bring those rioters to justice, not with silk gloves.
We expect that the treatment of them will be exactly the same as the concrete authorities will treat the boys from Beit Shemesh who were arrested in the attack on the Arab boy about a month ago.
