How far do those who oppose non-kosher phones take the battle? Is one justified in beating anyone over a phone, yet alone a 10-year-old girl?
This incident occurred in Elad on Sunday evening 9 Shevat at about 7:00PM. Two children, ages 11 and 12, assaulted a 10-year-old girl who lives in the city until she bled because they saw her with a non-kosher phone. Before assaulting her, they instructed her to break the phone in her hand. When she refused, they attacked.
The attack took place on Ben-Zakai Street in the chareidi city. The girl is part of the ‘chardalit’ (chareidi dati leumi) community and attends the Amihad School in the city. She was returning from a friend’s home when she was confronted by the attackers, who said “Throw the tamei phone on the ground. We will step on it and break it for you”. They of course explained to her that the phone was not a certified kosher phone and therefore, she was not permitted to keep it.
When she refused, she was attacked, knocked to the ground as they began pulling her hair. This continued until the bus she was waiting for arrived at the stop. She boarded the bus, bleeding and crying. They continued taunting her on the bus and when she turned to others to assist, they remained silent. Finally, the girl approached the driver, who threw them off of the bus two stops later.
Immediately after arriving home the victim’s parents took her for medical care because she appeared to be having difficulty breathing. After she was treated,
hours later, the parents informed local police and the city ‘moked’ dispatcher.
According to what the victim told police, what bothered her most is that not a single adult stopped to come to her assistance.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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24 Responses
and we still wonder why we are in golus
Disgusting! But that’s what those kids are being taught by the system.
What a misleading headline
Three kids got into a fight and it becomes national news
Jewish thugs. Did Moshe Rabenu beat Datan and Aviram for going against him? What about the meraglim? Why didn’t he beat THEM up? What exactly is going on with this false frumkeit?
What ever happened to the Chazal – Keshot Atzmecha… – fix yourself first? Where are we going wrong, where children are not aware of these core tenets of our religion?
I would like to believe this was more about two bullies being bullies than about kosher phones. I imagine that the bullies would have found a different reason to be bullies had the girl not displayed her phone.
The beating is wrong but the non kosher phone is doing much much more damage to the person then the beating. The article by not writing about the damage from the phone is one sided.
So very sick and sad. There is a portion of the frum community that is spinning out of control and heading to very dark places indeed.
Sad story!
We should be better!
Ever wonder why משיח hasn’t come yet? Is it because of non-kosher phones or……
I’m embarrassed!
Israel police won’t do anything about children attacking children.
I do not have a shred of mercy on the attackers. I would put them through arrest, trial, and jail. I would also mandate that the schools they attend expel them. To some degree, I would hold their parents and mechanchos responsible.
מי שמך לאיש שר ושופט. Who appointed them to enforce the rules about cell phones? Does their passion for this obliterate the issurim of hurting another Yid? Who taught them this corrupt thinking?
This incident is a call to action. We have created a monster. There is good reason for rules and restrictions. But someone who doesn’t know their place, who commits worse aveiros than what they are trying to enforce is in serious trouble. I would be more horrified to hear that any menaheles supports this criminal behavior.
These same boys most likely have a non-Kosher phone in one of their pockets use it for shmutz and they’re the one’s attacking others!! Shame..shame~~!!! It’s time to each the Frum community responsible usage of the smartphone with filters. Computers & smartphones are here to stay!!
About time everyone paid more attention to the holy Karlin-Stolin Rebbe Shlita and read up what he says about the “kosher” phone and Internet issue. And as for you #6 mayerfreund, maybe you should get off the Internet. It has clearly already done you irreversible damage.
A 10 year old child only has a phone because her parents gave her one. Why else would she have it? It is up to the parents to decide what kind of phone their child should have and it’s no one else’s business to decide for her and violence is wrong in any case.
How far does one go trying to slander the religious right on in international forum? Far enough to take a schoolyard bullying story and try to turn it into international news about kosher phones?
Sick! Such thugs 11 yr old and 12! Poor girl
I personally blame these Shomrim cards floating around.
don’t believe this!! this is just the mainstream media spreading lies!!
The only thing not kosher is hitting someone. If I recall it in the 10 commandments
May the malachei chavala be sent to those who beat this girl, and to the adults that did nothing to stop it.
#6, Then one wouldn’t be able to read TYW.
#11, Who said?
Also, when working on Shabbos was the thing, they probably also thought that it was here to stay. I’m not saying that this is for sure comparable (although it may be), I am playing devil’s advocate though.
I am also not saying that the boys did the right thing but it does seem to me that there is not enough information in the article as it seems like it may be biased. Seems like #14 may be correct although not certainly.
One thing that does strike me strange though, is that the article is taking something done by an 11 and 12 year old as something that shows us how far those who oppose non-kosher phones take the battle.
I think giving smart phones to kids is terribly wrong, but for kids to be educated to beat other kids because they have a smartphone is also wrong.
As my mother used to say, “Two wrongs do not make a right”
In general, people ought to be more circumspect about these matters. I personally happen to know of a developmentally-challenged young girl whose parents saw fit to equip her with a cellphone. Maybe this was based upon doctor’s recommendation; maybe they asked their rav? It’s surely not the concern of any other kids. All sides ought to take a deep breath and use their heads. It would also be smart for YWN not to spread these lashon-hara type news items. (There are many types of news items that fall into this category.) At the same time, people who rush to condemn the “offending” kids’ parents and schools should also give it a rest. You don’t rush to condemn secular society, secular schools, teachers and parents — just because several thousand (!) Israeli seculars are imprisoned for committing crimes.
Smartphones don’t kill people, people kill people.
I’m inclined to agree with american-yerushalmi. YWN should not be reporting this. It just gets blown up out of all proportion and causes more sinas chinom. After all, they are kids. Of course they should know better and obviously they are claiming to be fighting against the smart phone. But it’s obvious that they are children with very bad middos and who enjoy bullying others.
Check any primary school and you will find lots of such characters unfortunately. It is also very sad that the adults in their lives have indoctrinated them in this way.