An unarmed Charedi boy with special needs was brutally beaten by Israeli cops on Wednesday, Lag, B’Omer, in an incident that has many demanding outraged and demanding answers and justice. Making matters worse is video footage clearly indicating a different story then how it was explained by police.
According to multiple reports, the incident unfolded when officials dismantled a bonfire that was not in compliance with regulations. This occurred on Rashi Street at the corner of Techakmuni Street in the Mekor Baruch section of Jerusalem. Reports cited claims from police officials that the young man had pushed an off-duty female police officer (wearing civilian clothing) and was shouting at her. He apparently came out from an apartment nearby, which houses and cared for special needs children.
She phoned for backup and when police responded, the nightmare began.
One can see the pain of the young man as he was tackled to the ground by police, blood pouring from open wounds on his face, and screaming for assistance. While some of the persons in the area tried explaining to police that the young man is autistic, they were not showing any mercy and were unwilling to release him or dial back the force used, despite his painful cries.
The teenager can be seen, clearly in distress and pain, repeatedly shouting: “Mommy, I want to go home” and “Help, save me.”
The boy is enrolled in the “Siach Sod” program for children with special needs. They immediately sent someone to the site along with a social worker. When police realized their error, the young man was released.
In an official statement released to the media on Thursday morning, police state: “During a routine police enforcement operation yesterday regarding a bonfire that posed a danger to the surrounding area in the Makor Baruch neighborhood of Jerusalem, police encountered violence from tens of protesters, including rock-throwing and hurling objects at police.
“According to the preliminary probe into the incident, a young man went wild against police and attacked a policewoman. During the arrest of the suspect, he resisted and was wild, sustaining facial injuries. Immediately after being arrested, when his disabilities became clear, the officer on the scene decided to release him immediately and he was treated by Magen David Adom. A full investigation into the incident has been launched.”
However, video footage provided to YWN shows an entirely different story than what police are claiming.
In the video below, we see how the female officer was not even near the victim, and watch how officers touched the victim first, prompting the autistic teen to run, and eventually be violently and brutally beaten.
Sources tell YWN that there is even more video footage to prove that the cops acted in a violent matter, and then blatantly lied about what occurred.
Rav Shimon Levi, CEO of Siach Sod told the media: “We regret the grave and unfortunate incident. Parallel to the professional treatment given to the boy, we are working in coordination with the family and with legal assistance in order to ascertain his rights. We will have a dialogue with police, and we will do everything possible so that such difficult incidents will not reoccur”.
“It is heartbreaking to think about this special teenager and what he has gone through,” said MK Meir Porush. “Watching footage of the grave violence he suffered is intolerable and the hate and inhumanity displayed by the officers is impossible to understand.”
Porush called on Acting Police Chief Motti Cohen and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan to immediately expel the officers.
MK (Shas) Yinon Azoulai on Thursday morning released a statement calling for the suspension of the policemen who beat the autistic youth. “The assault on the child is disgusting and inhuman. The policeman who beat the boy is a sadist and unworthy of serving in the police. I call upon the Minister of Public Security to remove the policeman who beat him and to suspend the other policemen who were present on the scene and did not prevent this until the matter was clarified”.
Meretz MK Ilan Gilon said “the video’s content is worrying and the images are shocking and raise suspicion that excessive force was employed, while totally ignoring the citizen’s disability.” He called police’s conduct “outrageous, violent and disproportionate.”
Blue and White party No. 2 Yair Lapid said on Twitter that it was a “horrifying clip” and similarly called on police to “urgently” investigate the matter.
זה סרטון מזעזע שפוצע את הלב ומרתיח את הדם. המשטרה חייבת לבדוק את העניין הזה בדחיפות. https://t.co/JnVZy0A0xR
— יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) May 23, 2019
Lawmakers from the left-wing Meretz party also called on authorities to thoroughly investigate the incident.
אלימות משטרתית היא איום על הדמוקרטיה והיא תמיד מופנית קודם כלפי מוחלשים, מיעוטים, חסרי קול. פונה הבוקר למפכ״ל המשטרה בדרישה לחקור את המקרה ברצינות, למצות את הדין ובעיקר להסיק מסקנות עומק ורוחב להתנהלות המשטרה מול אזרחים https://t.co/JFMVdH5whQ
— תמר זנדברג (@tamarzandberg) May 23, 2019
ככה זה שאין מפכ"ל כבר חצי שנה, שוטרים "גיבורים" מפוצצים נער חרדי לוקה בנפשו, מפרקים אותו והפרצוף שלו מלא בדם. מקווה שההורים של השוטרים האלה יראו את הסרטון.
— יענקי פרבר | Yanki Farber (@yankihebrew) May 23, 2019
אהלן דוברות משטרת ישראל.
מצטט מתוך תגובתכם הבוקר על תקיפת הנער אתמול: "במהלך הפעילות תקף צעיר את אחת השוטרות".
עכשיו בואו נצפה ביחד בתיעוד נוסף מהאירוע וננסה למצוא ביחד את תקיפת השוטרת החמודה שלנו pic.twitter.com/fZlVHL2XsC— רב''ט מיילך הבת🎗️ (@ze_lama) May 23, 2019
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem/Photo Credit:” “מחאות החרדים הקיצונים)
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42 Responses
Put the violent cops and rioters together in jail and see what happens.
Horrible. All these Naz… Israeli police men should be put in jail
What they can’t do to the arabs because of all the liberals the cops do to the FRUM. Reasons why people don’t move to Israel. Look at how the person is bleeding?
I’m sitting here sobbing. I have an autistic child myself and my heart just can’t handle this. Poor shaifeleh….. this is so traumatizing, beyond words. Ribono shel olam!
The context here is that the police are used to violent demonstrations, abuse and “nazi” epithets on this street all of the time(rashi is where peleg yerushalmi conducts lishkat hagiyus hafganas). Therefore, tragicly, orthodox clad or orthodox appearing jews in that area have become associated with law breaking thugs who have no respect for brave, hard working law enforcement. I saw NO BEATING AT ALL in this video. I saw a citizen resisting arrest, and officers struggling to handcuff him. His bloody face is a result of that resistance that he initiated. Police work can be brutal and highly unpleasant, but that does not qualify as police brutality.
Just one question- What kind of society do we subscribe to if it is acceptable to assault a woman on the street? That is what you should all be thinking about.
Message to the sandwich store , When you hang an Israeli flag outside your store you are approving and supporting these acts
And it should be noted that dozens of other videos exist of “brave” chareidim screaming just as patheticly as they are confronted by the police, who do not suffer from autism or special needs. So forgive the cops for having lost some empathy.
Also note that this “boy” is taller than most of the officers arresting him.
“His bloody face is a result of that resistance that he initiated.” It’s a kid. You are way off on this. You can’t defend this. You should’ve really say this one out.
So according to the one, true Chareidi, since there may be other instances where other Chareidim disrespected the cops — this autistic boy on this occasion is guilty by association, and deserves whatever he got. And do you say the same for rampaging “hilltop youth” and other DL demonstrators who evince disrespect toward the cops? Are all hilltop youth and Dati Leumi protesters deserving of ruthless blows by cops? Did this Chareidi kid threaten anyone with a weapon? Incidentally, I have DL relatives who have told me several times that as a matter of course, Israeli cops are brutal and often break the law, and lie about it afterwards, always covering for each other.
Bottom line: cops should have restrained this autistic kid without beating him up.
RE Chareidi Amiti, if you cant put aside your hate of frum jews for a moment and see that this is terrible brutality done to the most vulnerable and treasured among us ie special children, it brings me to a final conclusion that you must be a einekel of Dr. Mengele YM”S.
Yes put away your hate and political driven agenda for a moment, when a autistic child is sadistically beaten.
(even Lapid was able to condemn this!, maybe you dont belong on yeshivaworld but on some pro nazi platform)
Dirty isrealis. I was there, not once was violence INSTAGATED by the Chareidim, yea, civil protests include stopping traffic and inconveniencing people, a basic right in any democratic society, even isreal. But not for Chareidim, no, handicapped? fine! block whatever the heck you want, Chareidi? watch out, we’ll trample you beat you spray you with stink water…
Our organization congratulates charedi amiti for speaking the pure truth.
You will have to excuse me some of these comments are just way off base. “Sandwich Shop you are supporting this behavior”. Seriously? Can we not assume there are a few bad police men on a big force? As the parent of a 24 year old young man who is autistic what first pops in my mind is who was responsible for supervising him and allowing him to get out of control. Don’t right away jump at the police without knowing the story! Don’t right away make this an excuse for your anti Israel meanness. Grow up.
message to @straight
The Nazi’s and Hitler would have you standing in the same gas chamber as the sandwich store owner. You should realize that you are looking at the world through such a small lens -broaden your horizon. Learn what people say and why and then maybe just maybe you will understand the need for the medinah. feel free to climb out from under the rock of biased, filtered, fakenews that you want to believe.
Chareidi Amiti – Fortunate are you to not have children or family members that are autistic. Your comments demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of this disability. It is quite clear from the video that this boy is not healthy. It is incomprehensible that the police can act like this for someone with this limitations. Even if this boy through stones and rioted, he is not able to understand that he did something wrong. The actions of police will have ramifications for him and his family that needs to care for him and it will be very negative. It is clear that the family struggles already. Police are VERY wrong here and they need to be investigated and prosecuted. This CANNOT be allowed to happen again.
@charedi amiti: Soneh chareidi amiti is more like it. YWN should ban this miscreant from the site. Despicable!
of course its hard to see someone with a bloody face, but I agree with chareidi amiti.
@chareidi amiti aka pathetic wimp. I just created an account at YWN after years of keeping silent despite hundreds of stupid comments. Yours perhaps top them all. Forget about the fact that you have incredibly krum hashkafos. Your username is ironic at best. You know who had more compassion for this poor Charedi boy than you? Yair Lapid.
You should be ashamed of your comments.
I can only assume you’re a fry zionist hiding behind a fake user ID–no other explanation for your comments. I was a bochur in the same area as this police BRUTALITY and I myself was attacked by an Israeli who had road rage. I was on a bike on the street, following traffic laws, and the driver behind me got upset when I asked him to please stop honking at me and that the traffic wasn’t moving. He got out of his car, tried to punch me, missed, took my bike and threw it down a hill damaging it. I called the police. The police arrived and this Israeli piece of trash lied to the cop and tried to blame me for a dent in his car (impossible for me to dent with my bike–and I didn’t touch his car anyway) and he took advantage of my poor Hebrew skills. The cop didn’t bother seeking truth and instead asked the Israeli driver if he wanted to press charges for the “damage” he claimed that I caused (which was on the opposite side of where I was biking). On another occasion, a worker from the building, Mohamed, gained access to our apartment with the kablan while we were out of town. Mohamed left our side door unlocked and conveniently came back and completely robbed us a few days later. The piece of trash Israeli kablan refused to give us Mohamed’s information. I filed a police report and the piece of trash Israeli police didn’t bother even investigating. After I called them every day for weeks they finally got Mohamed’s information and claimed to have spoke to them. The worthless police officer called me back and said he closed the case because he called Mohamed, asked Mohamed if he robbed our house, and Mohamed said he didn’t. That was it, case closed. Instance number 3: I was attacked by two thugs who drive through neighborhoods 5 minutes before shkia erev Shabbos and throw thousands of defamatory fliers out, littering entire neighborhoods with hate and lashon hara. I took a photo of them in the act and they started beating me. I reported them to the police with their license plate numbers and photos and the police insisted that I attend a “mediation” with my attackers at 2pm, erev Sukkos, weeks after I filed my complaint. I did not want mediation, I wanted justice, but said I would go to the police station after yom tov. The crooked police told me that if I did not go just before yom tov they would close the case, which they did.
Most of the Israeli police I have observed are corrupt pieces of trash. The honorable few are the quiet ones that don’t make the headlines and certainly deserve our thanks. The rest are a bunch of corrupt criminals following a policy that has a stronger bias against religious Jews than I have seen in any country in recent history since the Holocaust.
I have seen dozens of occasions of Israeli police breaking the law and when I ask them why they are allowed to act illegally or inappropriately instead of setting an example they only threaten me or act with aggression.
@”Charedi amiti” – your hashkafos are so krum and delusional that you clearly have no idea what you are talking about. In the future, just don’t say anything, please. You make us all look bad.
How sad that had this not been a autistic child but rather a innocent bystander walking by (I live in Israel and I have seen that happen, and it is every mothers in Jerusalem fear) NOBODY WOULD CARE!! it would just be labeled as another stupid pelog animal….. maybe some of you living in the USA will finally realize the Israeli police are made up of young inexperienced rash sometimes bitter and cruel unprofessional gangsters who chose to be part of the border police so they can beat arabs and Jews [for the record the main difference between the army and border police is that the latter is not sent to any dangerous places] and not every protester is a batlan-peleg-cruel…
I agree with chareidi amiti
Let’s be clear: police in Israel and elsewhere (save from third world countries, etc) doesn’t randomly beat people on the street for no reason. Same here, it’s clear from the video that there was irregular violence and interruption to public order. Same as in the US and other countries the purpose of the police is to ensure people are safe on the street. This not to say that they should have been very *careful* and trained properly to deal with special needs cases something that obviously haven’t been done beforehand.
Waste of time : thank you for posting the honest truth!!! Unfortunately this is long overdue ! The police get away with murder in Israel and if that makes me anti- Zionist so be it! I can’t imagine what these poor parents are thinking !
Chareidi amiti made a clear rational argument. The commentators attacking him are allowing emotion cloud their judgment.
I too am the parent of an autistic child and I was devastated to read this report and certainly couldn’t bring myself to watch the video. But my question is, how come police are allowed to beat anyone up?! They are a barbaric bunch of thugs and I hope they get severely punished!
@chareidi amiti, your nickname is just a mask for your rotten soul, you are indeed a disgusting person and you know it. The poor kid didn’t even punch the officer niether represented a relevant threat, its easy for anyone to tell who has authism, abvously this rotzeach didn’t care and decided to punch him untill he bleeds rivers,all this out of his hatred towards Judaism and chareidim. This officer is an Amaleki with israeli citizenship.
Crazy cant watch ………
This happens every second day in isreal but gets ignored by the media
SO do we have to get drafted to the IDF just to act like thees NATZIS??????
Chash, no, stopping traffic and inconveniencing people is NOT a basic right, or any kind of right. Try it in the USA and you will be arrested.
Heartfelt appologies if my observations aggravated people.
But they are still correct.
That some chareidim yell nazi at Jewish law enforcement does not give any officer a pass to beat chareidim that do not act this way. But it can explain the mindsets and reactions of the police when a hand is put on a fellow female officer.
The new video seems to indicate that there was not sufficient time in the initial interaction to realize that they were dealing with a special needs young adult, untill he was in handcuffs standing at the unit. It seems it only dawned on them then. The officers reactions were exsacerbated by the violent defensive arm swinging as he backed away from them, certainly noticed by all the onlooking (still uninvolved)officers.
If there is one thing that can not be overstated regarding filmed violent police encounters, it is that you must know what preceeded the video. This story employed words like “brutaly beaten”.He was NOT beaten! Grabbing an adult sized kid to arrest him always involves a risk to both parties involved. An autistic kid with a bloody face is a horible thing to see. But to create lies just to stoke sinah between Jews will not change anything for the better.
Over the last 10 years, american police have realized that an enormous part of their job involves mental health awarness. This is gradualy making its way over here to israel. But as i noted, there simply did not seem to be enough time here to apreciate his status.
For all of you who have had hyper negative interactions with the police- stop whining about it and do something! Change the reality for the better from the inside by joining them. They are actively hiring chareidim, and i know that yeshiva trained,mussar reinforced upstanding Jews like the ones that comment on YWN will only be an asset to the IPD.
Go for it!
@chareidi sheker ,you are a psycho. you seem to be so much dan lekaf zechus for a visibly apikores and judge an autistic kid that all he did is to try to leave once the officer pulled his hand, clearly in the video you see the officer trying to pull the kid first, therefore he deserves a bloody punch. Then you write such a long text to justify that thug with a batch, Seek for help immediately, make a new appointment with your psycologist soon.
I’m not sure what i think about this story, as I wont rush to judge without knowing the full story. However, one thing I can say for sure; Chareidi Amiti made a comment based on facts he believed he saw. Whether he is right or wrong? I don’t know, as i don’t know the full story (most people don’t). But to call him the grandson of Joseph Mengele Yimach shemo?! MENGELE?! The rasha who sent hundreds of thousands of jews to their deaths?! How dare anybody ever say such a thing about another jew. I rarely criticize people, especially in public, but Mr. Kleinbard, what you said is such a truly disgusting thing that I felt I must say something. How dare you?! Do you know who Mengele was? I find myself speechless and uncomprehending. How can you say such words?! About another jew? I truly don’t know what to say. I truly hope that you did not meant what you said. Please take what you said back, and please respond if you disagree as I truly would like to understand what can make you say such a thing about another jew.
abyunch of amalekim these things happen kseder the israeli police are dogs with out leashes rotzchim, hashem should send us moshiach and throw out the medinas haresha bmheira byomeinu
Policemen are C students with guns and batons. After 9/11, NYPD were looked up to as heroes. Most cops are garbage.
chareidi amiti: So many of the Israeli government officials, from the extreme left and right are outrageous with this video, yet you excuse the police saying “police are used to violent demonstrations, abuse and “nazi” epithets on this street all of the time”. The job of the police dept is to be able to deal with such situations! Not to beat a boy, handicap or not for some misbehavior. And yes, I call blood poring out of his face BEATING.
It does not matter that others in this city, with the same color cloths cause huge head-aches for the police. Their job to figure it out and have a way to deal with it, without causing such extreme pain, to anyone. Even if the boy was completely healthy.
The police dept has no right to beat ANYONE, just for saying disrespectful words out of his mouth.
And I thought the state of Israel was a democratic country.
And Chareidi Amiti, in case you dont understand Hebrew, יענקי פרבר writes ככה זה שאין מפכ”ל כבר חצי שנה. that Israel does not have a chief of police for the last half a year, since Roni Alshich. THERE IS NO ONE IN CHARGE
Very tragic whether he’s autistic or not, but this was bound to happen.. The violence against Jews, violence on streets, destruction of property, throwing IDF out of a shul, throwing rocks at firemen, spitting at women , not to mention intra- hate with posters, pakshivillin , cursing each other’s rabbonim , demonstrating ON SHABBAT ,etc..etc.. has strained the patience of police and citizens..
They have also lowered the bar into the garbage fill by using words like Nazi, … and above ,Mengele ,by the foul mouthed simpleton who has no clue who this devil was… My mom knew.. she looked him in the eyes and survived to talk about it…. You people using these words.. Shame on you . You’re a bunch of hate filled prustahks … .
The video is not at all conclusive as to how it began..can we wait?
@ Waste- of- Time….. Spare me… For every one of your stories I have 500 examples of quite the opposite…
Act like frum bnei Torah for a change.. or is it impossible?!!
Rrr- falling to the ground while resisting arrest is not a beating by any definition.
Politicions(forgive my spelling) do not have a law enforcement perspective or training when they view the end of these encounters, so i am not bound to their opinion.
And i have no reason to think that the outcome would have been any different if roni alshich was still in charge.
Good Shabbos.
….And which heartless dog(s) pushed this autistic boy into the streets and encouraged him?? Do we have video
of the lowlife instigators?..
I read most of the comments during the past few days.
Chareidiamiti and Ziongate are both making a mistake.
1. If a lowlife instigator pushed this autistic child into the street, is that a green light to smash his head.
Maybe they should look for the instigators.
2. During the past 18 months, I recall 2 stories of young palestinians trying to hurt soldiers, either it was a knife or with rocks. I recall that the army realized that the person was a little autistic and they did not harm those Palestinians. The army simply disarmed them in a quite and slow manner. No one got hurt.
3. I agree that those Peleg protests are not fair and I think that if the Gabbaim would have shown the Peleg videos to Rabbi Ohrbach , he would have definitely said to stop the protests and go back to the Bais HaMedrash.
Rav Orbach had no clue that these guys were sitting in the middle of the street and blocking traffic.
Summary: We are all upset with Peleg, not just chareidi amiti in the comments, but also the real true CHAREIDIM
that honestly fear Hashem, we are all upset together with these protests.
Bottom Line:
Just because you are angry with Peleg, do not take your revenge on an unarmed autistic child and smash his head.
This autistic child never ever tried to persuade Peleg to go to the streets.
Ya, there’s a YWN infamous stroll-a- troller Neb doing his multiples here …
chareidi amiti: you could watch the video again although I cant its too painful, they are throwing his face against the ground many times
Being that there is no one in charge, there is no one to blame: this can happen again tomorrow!
I happen to live in that area and this boy is always at demonstrations….
I am not Chas Ve’Sholem condoning the violence against this poor soul …
Question: Where the hell are his parents???
Why are they allowing him to be at these demonstration time and again?
Nothing good ever comes from these demonstrations ……..
and yes…the cops should be prosecuted… but so should the parents …
Thank you for the extra details. Why did that institution let him leave the building??