According to a Kikar Shabbat report, at a meeting of the Eida Chareidis leaders in the Zupnik Building headquarters in Yerushalayim, the decision was made to allocate over $20,000 for a legal fund to ensure the defendants of the Vaad Artzi tzedaka case are well represented in court. The defendants in the case were released with different restrictions. Kikar reports learning that the rabbonim have decided to allocate the sum towards assisting the defendants, who are well-known personalities in the community, hence the budget for their legal team.
In events related to the recent increased violence in Meah Shearim a bus traveling to the Kosel was bombarded with rocks as it passed through the community on Thursday night. Later on, a vehicle carrying police detectives was also attacked, smashing its windows.
And yet another incident on Thursday, a member of the sikrikim was beaten up after he allegedly attacked someone from the Poland Kollel earlier.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
I don’t understand why this is news. It doesn’t say that this was money given to Tzedaka for poor people which is now being misused. All it says is that money is being allocated for a legal team. If they know that these people are innocent then why shouldn’t they allocate money for this cause? I guess the one thing that this shows is that the people who made this decision strongly believe that the defendents are not deserving of prison sentences.
What do you mean by writing that the reason for an expensive legal team is because the defendents well known people in the community? Why is that a reason for the lawyers to cost more? Unless you mean to say that the reason why the Eida is willing to give so much for legal fees is based on how well known the defendents are. If that was your intent, can you explain where you got that knowledge from? It would sound like pure guessing and would therefore be going against the halachas of don likov zchus and loshon hara/motzi shem ra. I’m confused.
Given that the real offense they are charged with is being official of the Eidah and handling their funds, it’s make sense. The real defendant is the Eidah. This issue is whether the Eidah is a charitable organization subject to Israeli law even though the Eidah is substantially older than the Medinah and doesn’t recognize it. Remember the Eidah was the “government” of the hareidim community back when the zionists were running around trying to talk the Europeans into setting up a Jewish homeland on Turkish territory.
What does this has to do with various “sikrikim” accused of taking their own initiatve, not on behalf of any gedolim, and attacking people.
@akuperma:
“This issue is whether the Eidah is a charitable organization subject to Israeli law even though the Eidah is substantially older than the Medinah and doesn’t recognize it. ”
That will be a fast court case. I find it hard to believe that a legal defense of “we don’t recognize the state” will be successful.
#1- they aren’t accused of stealing money that was supposed to be spent on poor people – they are accused of not “sharing” the money with the Zionist government (via taxes). This is pure politics.
#2 – most organization in most systems pay the legal fees of their officers and employees who are arrested by the government for actions that were directed by or for the benefit of the organization — what’s unusual is that the zionists have generally tolerate the Eida for fear of a possible backlash (turning politically moderate Hareidim into radicalized pro-Neturei karta types, plus the international public relations problems when the pre-zionist “shadow government” complains to international human rights groups about persecution).