[PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]
Garbage cans and other objects were set ablaze in another stormy protest at Kikar Shabbos in Yerushalayim on Monday night, the eve of 2 Menachem Av 5773. The protest was held against the “gezeiros shmad”, referring to the cabinet’s decision to pass the Share the Burden Law that will compel bnei yeshivos to serve in the military.
YWN PHOTO LINK: Click HERE for photos by News 24.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem / Photos: חדשות 24)
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7 Responses
Low scale vandalism is a waste of time, especially since the people who matter have shown the ability to call mass demonstrations. If push comes to shove (i.e. mass arrests), it will probably be time to acts of civil disobedience that go well beyond burning trash in trash cans. The stakes are much higher now, and the vandals should learn to act only when told to do so by the gedolim, represented in various political bodies (e.g. Eidah hareidis, Agudas Israel, etc.).
The unfortunate residents of Meah Shearim who are left without garbage disposal, corner waste baskets, fire fumes disrupting homes and safety..
From the pics it doesn’t look too intense nothing worth writing about
Why protest? They probably are not aware that all Rabbanim are taking complete responsibility.
This is not the behavior of people who are shomer Torah u mitzvos. Just vandals as stated in 1. Rabbis who encourage such behavior are by definition not gedolim. Real gedolim would restrict any protests to nonviolent ones that are not mechalel shem shomayim.
akuperma [1] makes it sound like “Gedolim” some times call for vandalism.
#6- Not yet. Perhaps never. Vandalism is done by people with too much time on their hands, especially since its “Bain zmanim.” They are basically “trolls” only in an off-line environments. If the article read “Hareidi trolls burn trash in trash cans” it would better reflect the matter.
However there is a real crisis brewing and it appears increasingly likely that a wide range of gedolim (not just anti-zionists like the Eidah hareidis, but ones who were friendly with the zionists until a few months ago) will be calling for civil disobedience (i.e. criminal acts taken to resist the government), and it is important that whatever violence occurs, happens only if authorized by the rabbanim (and most civil disobedience involves some sort of vandalism). Remember that refusal to go to the army will be considered a much more serious crime than anything the “trolls” have done, and there will probably be significant retaliation from the state (e.g. closing down schools and non-profits that assist the known criminals…). While it goes against the grain for most Jews, now is the time to start expecting greater discipline than has been shown by our community in the past.