Numerous residents from the Geulah neighborhood in Jerusalem have declared war against public telephones claiming that they bother their young children and that there is no one in the community to deal with the problem.
This trend has been fomenting for a number of years according to a report by Kikar Shabbos. “Anonymous people call the phone numbers of the public phones and wait for a child to pick up, and when they do – the anonymous person harasses the children by raising conversations about Tzniyus issues and the conversations often get dragged to places where it is harmful to the soul,” the news site reported.
Residents have tried many tactics to combat the trend, including writing on the phones themselves “Do not pick up the phone,” in order to deter children from answering the ringing phones. All of their efforts have proven unsuccessful, until today.
On Wednesday, one of the activists combatting this trend walked around the neighborhood and cut the wires leading to the handsets of all public phones that he found.
One resident told Kikar Shabbos during an interview that the phones ring throughout the day and night and at all hours, but they are particularly active during the hours when the schools let out when the children are known to be walking the streets.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
I don’t understand why the public phones cannot be disabled for incoming calls only? Such was the case here in Toronto (before the public phones started disappearing altogether), so clearly such technology exists. Further, one would think that the calls could be traced (especially with modern technology and “call display” capabilities) , leaving one to wonder how there is no law to punish those who harass children and misuse public facilities. For that matter, for such abuse, the caller should be banned/blocked by the phone company itself from using any phone.
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