A 9-y/o boy was found in cardiac arrest in his bed on Ben Ish-Chai Street in Beit Shemesh. He was pronounced dead following unsuccessful advanced life support resuscitation. After a morning of confrontations between community members and police, the niftar will be buried without an autopsy.
Violence erupted between chareidim and police as they arrived on Thursday morning, after the police, considering an autopsy, used force to enter the home where the niftar’s body was. The chareidim insist they will not permit authorities to perform an autopsy on the child. It must be added that police at this point did not demand an autopsy, but the tzibur feared such a request would be forthcoming.
The loudspeakers were already heard during the morning hours in Yerushalayim as well, calling on the tzibur to protest to prevent and autopsy on the child. A garbage receptacle was set ablaze on Shivtei Yisrael Street and the violence spread during the morning hours to the Shmuel HaNavi area too.
Yassam riot police were sent in to remove the protestors while a police chopper hovered overhead, taking photos of protestors, perhaps to use to file charges against them. One policeman sustained light-to-moderate injuries. Police used pepper spray against protestors. Two arrests were made.
Beit Shemesh Mayor Rav Moshe Abutbul and a number of rabbonim were also present in the home, working to calm the situation. While the child was hospitalized in the past year, he was in good health of late and did not suffer from any chronic medical conditions.
Eventually, an agreement was reached by which a physician was permitted to inspect the body and after no signs of foul play were evident, a death certificate was issued and the bereaved family may bury their son. Jerusalem Zaka commander Bentzi Ohring played a vital role in persuading police to withdraw demands for an autopsy.
Dr. Michael Herman, the physician on board the MDA mobile intensive care unit stated in a calm tone that he was surprised at the determination of the those seeking to prevent a police-ordered autopsy, willing to do anything including placing themselves in a life-endangering situation. He too was hit with pepper spray and required treatment by his paramedic team.
Beit Shemesh resident Yisrael Friedman blames police, insisting until their arrival, calm prevailed and there was no justification for their “brutality” and the use of pepper spray.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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9 Responses
There was every need to use pepper spray. The alternative was to spray live ammunition on the hareidim.
In order to prevent protests such as this one in the future, there should be clear agreements between the police and the chareidi community so that the tzibbut will feel secure that an autopsy will not be done without their consent unless there is strong reason to believe that the cause of death was criminal. In this case, a simple medical examination was enough to determined that this was a natural death. Even for less clear-cut cases, there are non-invasive imaging methods available today such as sonagrams, CAT scans, MRIs. There is deep mistrust in Israel – and for good reason – that the body will be violated uncessarily. So even though the police did not say that an autopsy will be done, there is good reason to believe that if not for the protests, it would have been done. Even if it would not have, nothing has been done to reassure this tzibbur that their religious sensitivities are respected so that a scene such as this won’t be repeated in the future.
All this just adds to the pain of the family. Why can’t these fanatics wait to start rioting until they have something to riot for??
What to garbage cans have anything to do with this? Why bur them?
reply to number one
You should be ashamed of yourself, why should ehrlicher people who are trying their best to keep torah and mitzvoes be subject to the rules of Jews who REFUSE to listen to torah!! the only live ammunition that should be fired should be your yetzer tov against your yetzer horah!! wake up!! get real!! and you will have a live worth living!!
Sorry, I agree with number 1. Burning garbage cans, and violently protesting without the police ever saying they wanted an autopsy is ridiculous. It is incidents like this that LEAD to the lack of respect for chareidim.
bestbubby – the family would have been FAR more pained had an autopsy been done.
chaimss – I don’t condone destroying public property and am not excusing it. But this behavior is not without a background. Unfortunately, burning garbage cans became the “minhag” of the wild weeds of a partiuclar community that believes that protests/hafganot is the only language that the authorities understand and without the protests, this community has no voice. In many cases it appears to be true that this has been the only effective way for them to be heard – through massive protests. And the vildeh chayos among them don’t just protest, but are desctructive, and that is a huge chillul Hashem and must not be allowed. The countless hafganot over chillul Shabbos, chillul kevorim and autopsies over the years have borne results from which everyone in Israel is benefitting assuming most people don’t want their bodies cut up after death for no reason, for example, which resulted in many very sick people not agreeing to be hospitalized once upon a time. Much more recently, horrendous scandals about the infamous forensic lab in Abu Kabir came to light, gives people who care plenty of reasons to do anything to prevent an autopsy. So today’s protest did its job, although burning the garbage cans was beyond the pale.
loshen hara 123 you belong in nursery
BH #1 = pepper spray does not solve anything. it only gives the chareidim an excuse to become more energized. I think Yidden need to learn how to respect each other. Didn’t we just celebrate Lag B’omer? Shy did the talmidim of Rabbi Akiba die? All of them were Torah scholars, yet, they didn’t respect each other. Bein adam lachaveiro mitzvohs are as important (if not more so) as Bain Adam LaMakom.
#2 = It would be wonderful if the police and these chareidim could sit together & develop sound policy regarding autopsies, one that will take into consideration the needs of the religious public and the police. If only …
#3 = these people protest b/c they feel much hatred toward them & this is how they let out the frustration. It also places them “in charge” for a few minutes. But never stop to think about the possibility of chillul HaShem. In fact, NO ONE involved thinks about chillul HaShem.
#5 = where have you been the past 50 years? Hiding in a cave? Have you ever heard of tshuvah or the baal tshuvah movement? Frum Yidden must learn how to interact with the “not yet observant” Community, & to teach them the importance of keeping the mitzvohs & learning Torah. Not frum don’t understand the frustration the frum exerience at times, such as dealing w/ autopsy. They do not know the rules. We need to reach out to them, & one by one, let these Jews march home, again. In addition, I don’t think that ehrlich Yidden go around burning garbage or tires, or bullying police, etc. Just b/c one wears a long coat, or has long peyos, or wears a shtreimel – these things don’t necessarily make one frum. Indeed not. Unfortunately there are instances when they hide behind the garb, thinking it will protect them, or that they will be accepted into this society or that society, when in essence they really don’t understand, either.
Also, aren’t you aware of the halachah that Yidden have a mitzvoh to follow the laws of the land in which they live – provided these laws don’t go against Torah. Again, I think the Torah Leaders in Eretz Yisrael – not these people – but the Gedolim Shlita – they need to take these events to heart – they should request meeting with the leaders of the police throughout the Country, and again, work out a detailed agreement that follows halachah and that removes the worries of the others. Doing this, we remove all excuses for protesting, and the police lose reasoning to react as they did.
#7 = the issue of autopsies is Torah Halachah & Rabbinical Halachah. We don’t need to make up other reasons to give it the importance it is due. I understand that the chareidim are very frustrated and bothered that their voices and concerns are never heard or taken into consideration – regarding this situation and many others, but being destructive is not necessarily the answer for everything that happens in Israel. As noted, if they do this too often, people begin to lose reasoning. The one’s acting out lose focus, and the others stop caring.
HaShem, ad mosai? Shalom al Yisroel. Moshiach NOW !!!