Wanton Police Violence in Jerusalem

The chareidi protest against the gay parade two weeks ago resulted in a police pogrom against the chareidi community. The police knew that there would be unrest and demonstrations in the chareidi community due to their permitting the Abomination Parade. Garbage receptacles were already burning the week before the parade, a guaranteed sign of chareidi displeasure and more ferment to come. The police decided to dispense collective punishment to intimidate the entire chareidi community in Yerushalayim.

The following are some details reported in the chareidi press about it.

Police Rampage in Meah Shearim, Destroy Homes, Club Bypassers

Police commander Ilan Franco in Yerushalayim gave orders for police to unleash violence without restraint. What followed in the next few days can only be called an unprovoked pogrom directed at innocent bypassers and residents peacefully living in their own homes.

A.S. who lives in Meah Shearim explained what he saw on motzei Shabbos from the window of his home:

“When there are demonstrations, most residents know that it’s dangerous just to go out in the street, and whoever does, will get it. On motzei Shabbos at 1 in the morning, without prior warning, the police stormed at the end of Meah Shearim street.

“They fell on whoever was in the street and beat them up. I was watching from my porch as a Breslav chosid was going to the mikvah before going to shul to recite Tikun Chatzos. I yelled out to him that he shouldn’t continue down the street, but before he figured out what I was saying, he was attacked murderously on all sides, and the policemen arrested him. The police were out to terrorize the residents.

“In Batei Neiman, the policemen knocked on all the doors and woke up all the residents. Whoever they found in the street was beaten by them. They knocked on the door of a well known sofer in the neighborhood and when he opened the door, they began to club him. An important rosh yeshiva lives next door to him, and when he went out to see what all the noise was about, they brutally fell upon him. Besides intimidation, no one understood what the police wanted.”

The noise and screams woke up many residents. They came out on their porches to see what was happening. The police decided it was an opportunity to use their powerful water cannons which they shot indiscriminately at homes through Meah Shearim and Beis Yisroel.

The volley of blue and green water shattered windows, flooded homes, and caused heavy financial damage to many families. Children and the elderly living in these homes were terrified and helpless in the face of the brutal assault.

“Reb Yankel Weisberg is an elderly Jew in his 80’s who is a famous artist. In the middle of his sleep, a volley of water shattered his windows and ruined dozens of his paintings. He suffered major damage.

“Another family had just celebrated the Ufruf of their son. They had come back lack from the celebration and were preparing to go to sleep. Suddenly their windows shattered and volleys of water sprayed the rooms of their home. The green water stained the wedding clothes and the chosson’s streimel. The house looked as if after a pogrom.

Rav Yona Perl relates what happened to his 14-year old boy, who was returning from a melava malka with a pot in his hand containing food. “Just then a dozen policemen burst into Meah Shearim street and found the boy in their way. They fell on him, beat him up, trampled him and his kipa, and dragged him until Shivtei Yisroel street where they pushed him into a police van that took him to the Russian Compound.”

Rav Perl was only notified where his son was in the middle of the night and told he didn’t have a kipa and tefillin. He was allowed to come visit his son during the day, forced to stand around several hours while ignored by the police. Finally, in the afternoon, he had to sign a guarantee and an order that his son would have to leave Yerushalayim for the following week to gain the boy’s release. “My son told me that from the moment he was under arrest, the police didn’t stop abusing him. When they came to the Russian compound, he was interrogated. When he told them that he was not in the demonstration, he was punched in the head by the interrogator. When he was asked another question and delaying in answering it, they slapped him. Everything was a punch, a blow, they only know violence there. My son left the Russian Compound completely broken.”

Despite the police intimidation, the large-scale demonstration against the gay Parade was held on schedule on Bar Ilan street on Sunday and thousands took part. Police were violent during the demonstration, attacking passive demonstrators on the side walk and speeding their motorcycles into crowds.

On Sunday night, Ron Binyamini, the Kol Israel police reporter reported live from Bar Ilan about the violence of the Yassam {Police Special Forces] against the demonstrators. Binyamini reported that two Yassamim were speeding in a motorcycle, with one driving and the second pounding anyone within reach.

The one driving the motorcycle drove up on the sidewalk so the other could beat the passive demonstrators standing there. Binyamini reported, “The policemen are using exaggerated force against people who are not dangerous. They clubbed anyone who happened to be in their way. Whoever passed by, got it.”

Trying to neutralize the bad press, the Yerushalayim District police sent their long-time spokesman Shmuelik Ben-Robi to be interviewed by the press. He declared, “The report was false. It was invented by the reporter.” But to prove the reliability of their reporter, Kol Israel interviewed eye witnesses who confirmed his report.

On Monday, close to 1 in the night, when Geula was empty of bypassers, Yassam policemen entered the building of a large yeshiva gedola in the area. Several students were engaged in their last preparations before going to sleep. The police found a bochur who had just exited the bathroom. They fell upon him in a fury, and beat him up. He filed a complaint in the Police Complaint Department the following day.

The Police Complaint Dept. is another charade to convince the gullible citizenry that they will receive justice in the State from the predations of the police. The head of the department is the wife of newly appointed Deputy Commander of Yerushalayim Nisu Shacham, the famous police commander who ordered police during the Disengagement to physically harm demonstrators and Gush Katif protesters “let them burn… use all power against them…. beat the top part of their body with clubs… I will [expletive] their mothers…. “

Who can be so naive as to believe that the wife of the brutal commander who incites his policemen to brutalize innocent citizens will deliver justice?

Reports of dozens of complaints of police brutality have already been filed in the Police Complaint Dept., and based on past precedent, most will be closed due to lack of “public interest”.]

In Bet Shemesh, a demonstration was held in which hundreds were participating. Rav Shmuel Chayim Pappenheim, the editor of Ha’Aida, who was present, recounts, “I and another 15 people remained in the Shaar HaRema shul, which was two streets away from the demonstration. Suddenly two private police cars parked in front of the shul, and 8 Yassam policemen leaped out. They ran madly up the stairs, giving murderous blows with their clubs in every direction. We all fled, but one of the avreichim, R’ Aaron Fishman, escaped into the shul. The police ran after him and broke into the bathroom he had locked himself into. They beat his face with their fists, and kicked him all over his body. They only left him after he had collapsed on the floor bleeding, with two of his teeth knocked out and his jaw bleeding. I was the volunteer in Magen Dovid Odom that night. I took him to the emergency room in Bet Shemesh, but they rushed him to Hadassah Ein Kerem to have him stitched up and hospitalized.”

Seven demonstrators were arrested in Bet Shemesh.

The police pogrom was enacted every night that week, with more homes getting attacked and damaged. By the end of the week, every second apartment in the vicinity of Meah Shearim and Shivtei Yisroel streets had been damaged.

The number of injured and beaten reached hundreds. Officially, 84 chareidim had been arrested, of which 40 were youths. Many dozens of others were injured and had to be hospitalized. Most of these were innocent bypassers or people going about their business who had been set upon by the police.

Residents of Meah Shearim are banding together and are planning to sue the police and demand payment of damages. Considering the collusion between the courts and police, they can expect a lengthy and wearying run-around with any chance of compensation nil.

Chareidi Police Informants, and Policemen Camouflaged as Chareidim

One of the revelations of police tactics which the past week-long rampage revealed was the police tactic to camouflage themselves like chareidim as well as recruiting chareidi informants to help them.

During the Sunday demonstration, several demonstrators found themselves being pulled away by other chareidi demonstrators and when they remonstrated with them, the “chareidi” suddenly pulled out his police card and arrested him.

Channel 10 reporter, Sharon Gal, hosted a program about the camouflaged policemen called the “Mischardim” (after the “mista’arvim” – the disguised Arab unit in the army). The TV show showed pictures of several “chareidim”, wearing black kipas, white shirts and tzitzis, who were in fact police from the mischardim department of Yerushalayim police. Some of the pictures showed them pulling out their police cards and arresting demonstrators.

The Channel Ten reporter explained that the camouflaged policemen also threw stones in addition to using water cannons, motorcycles and Yassam police.

Police also tried to recruit chareidi informants. Three weeks ago, apparently in preparation for the stormy days which the police knew were ahead, A., a Bnei Brak avreich walking in Geula, was suddenly stopped by a man who looked like a chiloni businessmen and who asked A. for his identity card.

“Who are you?” A asked warily.

The man showed him his police card and asked him if he has any information about organizing that’s going on. The avreich told him that he is just a simple guy and he lives in Bnei Brak and doesn’t know what’s flying in Yerushalayim. The policemen didn’t give up and explained to him, “I’m also against the parade, but you know that we can’t let fanatics and kids at the fringe take control of the place.”

When A. again asked him what he wanted from him, the policemen gave him a calling card of an intelligence official in the Yerushalayim police and asked him if he would like to become a secret agent for the police. He promised that in return he would arrange any bureaucratic problem in any public institution that he needed. As proof, he told him about another avreich who had become an informant for the police several hours before, and the police already shortened the wait for an operation for a family member in a large hospital.

A. refused to countenance the offer, and the policeman waved him away.

That second, a heavyset, tough-looking man with a Russian accent who was carrying a weapon approached A. The policemen told the Russian, “Leave him alone, he’s just a poor guy.” When A. asked what the Russian was doing there, the policeman told him that he always accompanies him on his attempts to recruit “because one never knows what could develop.”

Policemen Prevented Magen Dovid Odom From Treating Their Victims On Sunday morning at 3 in the morning, Magen David Odom received an emergency call from a youth who had been clubbed near the Aitz Zayit Hotel near Zevihl institutions, next to Highway One. The ambulance found a 15 year old prone on the grass, and two policemen on horses. When they stopped their siren and jumped out of the ambulance to treat the bochur, one policeman galloped up to the ambulance and ordered them to leave. The paramedics refused to listen to them, since they are mandated by law to treat the injured, so the policeman began to threaten them. The paramedics remained in the ambulance and reported to their center that they were prevented by the police from offering first aid. The paramedics filmed the threatening policeman on horse.

A Border Police jeep then drove up to arrest the 15-year old. The two policemen on horse made off. The paramedics received orders to chase the policemen, and with the assistance of another paramedic who drove up in his private car, they chased one of the policemen into an alley. The policeman then threatened the paramedics that he would accuse them of harassment while fulfilling his job. In the end, the policeman identified himself as the deputy head of Yerushalayim police horse troops, Avshalom Malki.

Paramedics were not permitted to treat the wounded youth. He was taken to the police station in the Russian compound for interrogation. No one knows if the youth was treated afterwards or what further brutalization he underwent in police quarters.

On Tuesday night, several people were standing around the gas station on Hachoma Hashlishit corner of Shivtei Yisroel. One of the people, in his 30’s, was reading Tehilim out loud. Suddenly Yassam policemen arrived and clubbed him on the head. They cracked his chin and his face and body was filled with blood. They also kicked his body with their feet.

Ambulances which arrived shortly after were prevented from treating the injured man. He was dragged into a police Skuda wagon at the point of losing consciousness due to loss of blood. In the Russian compound, he was treated by a police doctor. Shortly after, a police car came to the site and rinsed it of blood to cover up the testimony of their brutality a short time before.

Chareidi politicians Protest Brutal Police Behavior

At the Knesset Plenum during the week, chareidi politicians futilely protested the police brutality.

“It cannot be that Israeli police deliver collective punishment against an entire tranquil neighborhood. That they should hit right and left people who didn’t even participate in demonstrations, drive madly with their motorcycles on the sidewalk, and club bypassers until they bleed! It cannot be that they shoot water cannons and shatter windows in homes that didn’t touch, throw stones or do a single thing. It cannot be that Israeli police encourages violence through its actions against Israeli citizens,” said MK Avraham Ravitz.

Rav Moshe Gafni turned to Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter and said,

“What is happening in Yerushalayim in the last few days is a scandal according to any measuring-stick. This is not a state ruled by law. We’re living in a police state. They shoot water into the homes of people who have nothing to do with demonstrations. There was nothing like this in years. A phenomenon like this in the heart of populated neighborhoods? Are you aware that some of the policemen are serious lawbreakers? They must be dismissed from the police!”

MK Rav Meir Porush asked Dichter, “What are 3-4-5 year old little children guilty of? Why are their clothes and beds guilty? Why are their homes ruined with blue water? When did these children ever throw a stone in their lives?”

Dichter replied, “The police do not have a hobby of standing in chareidi neighborhoods or any others, with hundreds of policemen, police vans, and special units. He implied having to suppress the chareidi community’s demonstrations was diverting them from their important work of eradicating crime.” He depicted the general chareidi community as “rioters”. MK David Azulai (Shas) replied, “Are children their goal? Is the minister calling children who are sleeping in their homes and being attacked with water cannons rioters?” Gafni added, “I’m not talking about rioters. I’m talking about an elderly widow living in her house.” [A 80 year old woman had her house smashed and destroyed by the water cannons breaking the windows of her house and destroying the interior.] In another deliberation held in the Knesset plenum, Dichter said the police would investigate itself and its actions. “I am convinced that whoever has information about unreasonable violence etc. will inform the police. Whoever wants to bring the information to the Police Complaint Dept. — the way is open to him. The Israeli police will certainly not get in their way.” Dichter’s words gave away the reason for the police violence and also intimated that it was directed from top police levels: the police doesn’t like the chareidi community standing for its values and demonstrating when matters of concern to them are under assault. They would prefer to see the chareidim keeping their mouths shut and suffering in silence while letting the elites run the country. A useful tool to accomplish this is through collective punishment. By attacking innocents — little children and elderly widows — they hope to intimidate the chareidi community so they will think twice before they dare to bother the police again.

The police feel free to use collective punishment, because they know the courts will back them, the State Prosecutor and General Attorney will cover up for them, and the government will support them. They would never use this kind of violence against Arabs because of the fawning attitude of all these bodies to the international community and the Arabs.

“Reports of dozens of complaints of police brutality have already been filed in the Police Complaint Dept., and based on past precedent, most will be closed due to lack of “public interest”.”

Lack of public interest, in plain English, means it’s none of the public’s business. The public has no legitimate interest in the deployment of psychopath squads by the police. The criminal system of justice never said such a thing when the brutality alleged was against Arabs. Oh, no! That was very much in the public interest. But against Jews? Especially Haredim? Get serious! People think I’m not only exaggerating but positively daft when I tell them that, with the possible exception of some vociferous Islamic states, Israel has the most anti-Semitic government in the world.