Tel-Chai Nation: Dozens arrested in Bnei Brak yeshiva feud

A raid was conducted against vandals in Bnei Brak:

Police deployed in force in Bnei Brak early Thursday morning to carry out dozens of arrests at one of the Haredi world’s flagship yeshivas, following a series of complaints about violence, vandalism, and arson among a small core group of offenders, Tel Aviv police said Thursday.

Thirty yeshiva students were arrested during the raid at the famous Ponovezh Yeshiva, as police went door to door with lists of students, looking for suspects involved in what has been described by police and reports in the Haredi press as a feud between two rival groups of students at Ponovezh.

One of the groups is described in various reports in the Haredi press as “the terrorists”, and the other as “the haters”. The two follow separate rabbis, according to a statement made by one of the suspect’s attorneys in court on Thursday.

Over the past several months, police said they have received dozens of police complaints about acts of violence and vandalism and carried out the arrests in order to try to calm the situation at the yeshiva, known as possibly the most renowned Litvak yeshiva in the world.

One of the incidents mentioned in several reports in the Haredi press on Thursday, was of an incident during the month of Elul, before the high holidays, when students from the “terrorists” group ransacked a library at the yeshiva associated with their rivals. The incident was described as a “pogrom” in reports on Haredi internet sites Thursday.

Police said the raids were meant to focus on a core group of instigators, and by Thursday afternoon, 26 of the 30 were released without conditions. Another four were released from custody and ordered banned from Bnei Brak for three days. During their hearing Thursday, the presiding judge said that because of the type of allegations and the young age of the defendants, there was no reason to keep them in custody.