[YWN VIDEO & PHOTO LINK BELOW] Jerusalem Councilman R’ Yosef Deutch has harsh words for Israel Police, explaining that instead of permitting the thousands to silently protest as was the event this past Shabbos at Kikar Safra/City Hall, police used batons without discrimination, unjustifiably striking protestors and injuring many, while inflaming the situation which escalated to becoming unruly and violent at times.
Deutsch hopes to meet with Minister of Public Security Yitzchak Aharonovitch and Israel Police Chief Dudi Cohen, seeking an explanation as to the unacceptable actions and behavior of police.
It should be pointed out that among the police troops assigned to the event were members of the Yassam, who brutality has been seen frequently in the past against right-wing protests and in Amona and other areas. They were wearing riot gear and waving batons, a move some feel sent a clear message of police intentions against unarmed demonstrators.
Rav Deutsch pointed out that the large protest was peaceful, led by Gedolei Yisrael, and their simply was no justification for the actions of police.
Leaders of the Eida insist they will not tolerate the insult to Shabbos Kodesh in Yerushalayim, and they are prepared for whatever mesirus nefesh is demanded to stand and defend the honor of the Shabbos.
One of the meetings held last week in an effort to reach an agreement was between Deputy Education Minister (Yahadut HaTorah) R’ Meir Porush and Police Major-General Bruno Stein, who commands the Tzion station, during which Porush explained the magnitude of the insult to Shabbos as it is perceived by the chareidi community, stating the opening of the municipal parking lots represents an unacceptable affront to Kedushas Shabbos in Yerushalayim.
Adding fuel to the flames of dispute was the Jerusalem police commander, who on motzei Shabbos stressed the department is determined to do what it takes to keep the parking lots operational on Shabbos, and it is not deterred by the protests in any way whatsoever.
Rabbonim appear determined and they insist they will not halt protests until such time the parking lots are closed on Shabbos as has been the case in the past.
YWN VIDEO & PHOTO LINKS: Click HERE for photos of the Hafganos, and HERE & HERE for video.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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26 Responses
Why are these people making fires and throwing stones on Shabbos?
TO “bigkhuna” (no. 1):
I guess you have never organized a protest. There are all kinds of people who come to a protest, No one sells tickets to attend a protest.
If all goes smoothly, there is no problem, but, if some Policemen lose their discipline and decide to use physical force to express their hatred of Hareidim, you cannot expect every one of the thousands of protestors to sit there, meekly–like lambs–while the Police thugs are mercilessly beating their friends and neighbors.
Chillul Hashem of Epic Proportions. If you were to visually remove the chareide clothing from the protestors it looks no different that a palestinain protest. Have we become like them?Firstly, on the merits of such a protest: You are not going to prevent tourists of all religions and lack thereof, that come to “Jerusalem” from all over the world, not to visit and drive on shabbos. Not going to happen, since you are not going to close down the entire city. Most of the shechunos nowadays have barriers so cars don’t come through on shabbos. I don’t see how a parking lot that is not in a residential area disturbs anyones kedushas shabbos. The fact that it is unmanned (by jews), and does not generate revenue, shows sensitivity on the part of the govt already. But some people are always looking for action. When is the israeli taliban going to learn that you attract more bees with honey than with vinegar? When we had shmiras shabbos marches in Flatbush, it was done by walking nicely down the business streets, singing shabbos-heliger shabbos, and trying to be mikarev the jewish storekeepers to close on shabbos. The result; many did, and many became full shomrei shabbos. It worked! Violence, hafganas, stone throwing, burning garbage and getting arrested does not. You want to promote kidushas shabbos, go to shul, daven, come home have a seuda, sing zemiros with your family, say a dvar torah, invite someone who needs kiruv, or doesnt have a place to go. Then, sit down and learn with your children. That is promoting kedushas shabbos.
But why? What is the point of this? Not kiddush shabbos, that’s for sure. If you want the police to keep shabbos, invite them in. Show them the beauty of it all. I don’t know about the rest of you all, but I wouldn’t become shomer shabbos from having a rock thrown at me. Or even from being shlepped out from my place at the police station to watch a whole bunch of chareidim go wild. I would consider it if I saw peace, not disunity. Even claiming that the police were brutal is silly. You know who you are dealing with, you know what the secular media is going to say, you know the hatred it will cause, so don’t do it!!! Care about your secular brothers? Don’t add balls of ignorance to the chains that already bind them to their tinok shenishba lifestyles. You want them to be passionate about shabbos? Give them something to be passionate about! Why should someone not drive on shabbos if they never saw hadlakas haneiros? Why should anyone feel that being stuck at home is not being restricted if they never saw the family unity at a shabbos seudah?
I agree, the parking lot should not be open on shabbos, but at what cost? Will the secular govt. have to close the lot due to Eidah,not chareidi, Eidah pressure and spend the rest of their lives venting about the totalitarian chareidim? Will they or their children ever have hope of being mekabel shabbos if this is how the community behaves?
My sincerest sympathies to everyone that was hurt, and you are in my prayers. I wish people would realize, even if you don’t have another way of going about being mekadesh the shabbos, don’t hurt, and don’t be mechallel.
number 3- you are 100% right.
i’m sorry to say but whats misleading in this article is that is was not led by gedolei yisroel. i doubt rav elyashiv and rav kanievsky were at this protest. remember it takes two to tango and there is no such thing as a one sided argument since the incident of moshe and korach. just look at the pictures…i would be ashamed if those were my children.
Plenty of Jerusalemites stayed away and remained home to keep shabbos kodesh.
This was an pure political onslaught to show the Mayor that the Charedim run Yerushalayim and votes in the council mean nothing since none of us (who demonstrated) vote, have tehuda zehus, or are connected to this government. Same reason that none of these poeple partook of the wednesday security siren and did not find bunkers or air raid places.
As a neighbour to all the events that took place, I can assure readers that the members who have commented above simply have on clue as to the facts. They absolutely do not know what they are talking about.
number 8-what facts don’t we have a clue about? That not every one of the chareidi rabbonim were involved? That this does not represent mainstream chareidism? That this was not a move to be mekadesh the shabbos? I’m also a neighbor. Where is your common sense? That some of the violent protestors, and yes, I know a few, and their proud of their adventure, belong to groups that are not part of the Eida? That I know people that went despite explicit discouragement by their Rabbanim. Bless those that stayed home. They knew what they were doing. They didn’t succumb to the urge to be part of the fun despite what many gedolim said.
I think the cops arre brutal but look how much chilul shabbos this hafganah caused between police anti protestors and news media there was a lot of chilul shabbos.
#6-“i’m sorry to say but whats misleading in this article is that is was not led by gedolei yisroel. i doubt rav elyashiv and rav kanievsky were at this protest.” that may be, but the gaavad of yerushalayim was…this may have been a peaceful walking protest if the police didnt come with their batons and start beating people up…so all you people in america can keep darshening, but you have no idea what you’re talking about
One questions…… Why were there no sephardim at this protest?
Also, if I’m not mistaken by watching the video very closely, I think it was a chareidi who started the shoving which escalated into this big ball of fire. This saddens me to hear that this will go on next shabbos, C’V! May H-Shem bless them with yeshuv hada’at to make better choices. We have enough to worry about with this hussein obama who cites captions from the koran on his Wed. address.
as a wittness to Hafganot in the past, there is a need for the reader to understand this from a factual standpoint, not just a objective view.
prior to condeming behavior that is disgusting on the part of the protesters and being repulsed by the images.
allow yourself a moment to take a sneak preview into the minds and hearts of those insisting the place will be opened. and chilul shabbos will prevail.
how do they plan on dealing with the “problem”.
indeed objectively speaking peace with iran is possible…. why not …lets talk… lets make it happen….
this is a foolish assumption, why? because we know what he wants and we will not change his mind. it would be foolish to think otherwise.
what may i ask was the sudden cause for this parking dilemma…why was there no need when a frum jew was mayor.
why is it a non frum jew who would like to modernize the shabbos which he doesnt appreciate, suddenly find the need to operate garages when a chunk of the population doesnt want it.
is it going to help him win a new term???
the police are known brutes who hate the religious jew. been there seen it no provocation literaly like the nazis in germany. and yes i mean that. exactly they would attack crowds like animals for fun. yes fun and practice.
and yes the response will be defensive in nature.
that is the reality. no need to pr the story that chareidim are evil when in fact Rabbi Weiss the Gaavad of the Eidah is a Tzadik and Gaon in both torah and middos.
do you think he wants riots do you think this man who is AMel all his life to better his Middos and be a better eved Hashem is wrong to protest. or do you think NIr Bareket knows better and is “surprised” doesnt “understand” why..
time to wke up and smell the coffee they have an agenda to be a nation like all, and we have an agenda not to be… sorry we dont control the media otherwise we would show pictures of their sick sadistic brutality..
chazak veematz lmaan kvod hashabbos vyisrael….
Number 8. Please tell us what happened so we know the facts.
Number 11. You obviosly didn’t look at the pictures or view the video to say that this was a peaceful walking protest. I’m not saying the police are innocent but remember it takes 2 to tango. Also the world holds chareidim to a higher standard and no matter what the intention was they only succeded in making a chillul Hashem. Ask yourself, Is Hashem happy with this protest? I don’t know but I can make a pretty good guess.
to all the ‘american minded’ yidden who are absolutely appalled by these protests. the fact is that we are living in a zionist state run by zionists. these people are known to be brutal murderers and one should pray not to fall into their hands because they have no mercy. their hands are full of blood. when there were marches on lee avenue and in flatbush there were no riot police there waiting to beat up an unarmed protester. the fact is that the policemen here are taught and brainwashed to beat the guts out of the religious jew. sad to say but if all would be good we would forget that we are still in galus. my shoulders are not broad enough to take rabbi weiss and rabbi elyashiv to task for calling this protest. whoever does have the broad shoulders should kindly go public so that the people can start bringing their shallos to you.
Although I understand the frustration, I say let them open it, and as a Macha’ah open up right there a booth to give out ‘chulent’ and printed material about the holy Shabbos
…and no, I’m not a Lubavicher, but as much as we’re right and they’re wrong, as much as a macha’ah is warrented, it will not enter their brains this way… surely not if we take ONLY this way.
it’s a new generation which knows nothing other then what they hear from the Media. We can’t afford to stress the negative of Shabbos, without them getting any clue that there’s also a lot of possitive.
gaavad of yerushalayim was…this may have been a peaceful walking protest
This same gaavad of yerushalayim was quoted as saying after meeting with the city council, “Jerusalem will burn if….”–not the most peaceful words every spoken.
“what may i ask was the sudden cause for this parking dilemma”–Parking dilemma worsened when parking in the old city on shabbos was stopped due to security reasons.
If you realize, it was already dark when they lit the fires
How many readers were around nearly 35 years ago, when a sports stadium just outside Yerushalayim and the K’vish Ramot were opening? The Eida then also insisted on hafganot just like this, and the results were identical. I could name names of well known rabbonim from the yeshiva world who attended. One, a world renowned author familiar to all English speaking Torah Jews, told me, “Of course I had to be here. It’s poshut!” But when the police started firing a water cannon he turned white as a sheet and ran in the opposite direction. That particular hafganah was orderly (on our part) as I recall. In front of the Eida building (Binyanai Zupnik), the mafginim assembled before walking toward the k’vish near Ezras Torah. One of the dayanim of the Badatz stood on the balcony to address the assembled crowd. He roared (in Yiddish), “And the one who overturns a garbage can is himself a garbage can!”
I don’t recall any roshei yeshiva or Maran Rav Elyashiv shlita putting their haskoma on that protest over three decades ago. I doubt highly if Maran Rav Elyashiv shlita authorized it last Shabbos.
to # 16. You are in wrong place, pal. Your comment belongs to Hizbollah or Hamas website. I wonder how many people you personally know that were killed by Zionists? Why don’t you go and live in Gaza, I’m sure you can enjoy your life there and find many common friends who also hate zionists. And all of you that hates Israel so much, and cause major Hillul Hashem, and make other frum Jews fell ashamed for such actions, should join # 16 as well.
I think the isrealis should spend the same resources to train the police on RESTRAINT to the chariedi protesters, as they do when they go into (l’havdil) arab riots.
Number 23, when 16 gets back to you, I would also like to here of all the thus far nameless deaths by Zionists. And the idea to move to Gaza- just perfect!! While you’re at it, 16, you could start your own branch of Neturei Karta, I don’t think there’s one in Gaza yet.
I think that the fact that six police men and one press member was injured, but not a single chareidi, shows exactly who was getting overly violent. Not all, chas v’shalom, but there were definately ppl. there that did not behave appropriately. I know some of them, and as I mentioned before, they did not necessarily belong to the Eida or to any group that endorses these things. It takes violence and sinas yisrael to pick up a rock, not love for shabbos or secular people that are desecrating it.
That policeman that had a rock thrown at his head, he must be Shomer Shabbos by now, ain’t that so?
About the protests in Flatbush, Lee Avenue, you had a permit and there were no 10,000 people. In any such a situation, in the U.S. or elsewhere, they call in riot police.
Lady next door, check out what just happened in Kiryas Yoel. When protests get violent, they get violent, it takes two to tango. Which Israeli police academy did you train in, and exactly at what part of your training were you told to beat the brains out of chareidim? Just curious. And golus is all about saying people are murderers when they aren’t, I gather. I’m doing some research on golus, want to hear which sefer you picked that up in.
#16, if the Israeli police are “brutal murderers” then you are not allowed to go to the protest, because you are putting your life in danger, as the Brisker Rav said many years ago. I don’t think Rav Weiss thinks they are so brutal or he wouldn’t have let so many people to put their lives in danger, unless he thinks its “yeherog v’al ya’avor”.