Tel-Chai Nation

As though things could've have been bad enough last year when the trampling tragedy occurred during Lag Ba'Omer, now, police had to arrest a group that was plotting to sabotage this year's event on purpose:

Police arrested a group of men and women on Tuesday suspected of planning to sabotage the preparations being made for Wednesday night’s Lag B’Omer celebrations on Mount Meron in northern Israel, the police said.

The suspects were in possession of four bags “full of wirecutters, utility knives, hammers, eggs filled with paint, and gloves that are suspected of having been meant to be used to vandalize the electrical system for the communications equipment, loudspeakers and screens that had been set up,” police said in a statement.

Crowbars, spray paint and other tools were also confiscated, according to police.

Israeli authorities have significantly changed the format of the annual celebrations that are held on the Lag B’Omer holiday at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Mount Meron after 45 men and boys were crushed to death last year in the worst civil disaster in Israel’s history.

These changes have been met by fierce opposition among some Haredi Israelis, including some influential rabbis and community leaders.

The suspects were arrested near the town of Kadarim in northern Israel as they were allegedly making their way to Meron in a minibus.

Police said some of the suspects belonged to “an extreme Haredi sect,” without specifying which.

“Besides threatening the event and causing a disturbance to the revelers, damage to the facility was liable to cause a real threat to people at the site if they were to damage the command-and-control infrastructure of the event,” police said in a statement.

So what we have here is a cult that was willing to endanger lives of their own brethren as a whole, and it's made worse by the revelation that some would-be rabbis and other gurus also opposed safety measures being set in place. Absolutely disgusting, and it makes little difference if this was some small cult of separatists guilty of plotting chaos; what matters is that insularity of the lifestyle leads to this kind of insanity.

Besides the above news, it was also reported the WZO also had a problem with 2 divisions run by Haredi members who encouraged shouting at the Women of the Wall at Jerusalem's Old City recently:

The World Zionist Organization (WZO) has stated that it “strongly condemns” the acts of violence at the Kotel plaza two weeks ago between Women of the Wall activists and haredi women.

The senior management of the WZO met on Monday afternoon and condemned the fact that two of its departments (run by two haredi political parties that are part of the World Zionist Congress) had organized an event that turned violent.

“The World Zionist Organization strongly condemns the conduct displayed at the event held at the Western Wall on Monday, Rosh Chodesh (new month of) Iyar, in collaboration with the Liba Center while using WZO symbols,” the WZO resolutions stated. “This behavior does not represent the WZO’s fundamental values, and runs completely against the ethos and ethics of the Zionist movement, which is committed to pluralism and mutual respect between all streams of Judaism.

It was absolutely wrong of the haredi-led departments to do this, and apparently without even actually informing the main management of their intentions. They owe a serious apology, to say nothing of a clear explanation why they think insularity and vulgarity are acceptable.

On the other hand, if you want some news involving a Haredi who was wronged, there's this case where a man from Betar Illit who dipped in a pool, supposedly on the wrong side of a boundary:

A young Haredi man spent the entire Shabbat in police custody after crossing the Betar Illit city fence to the “Palestinian” side to immerse in a spring on Friday afternoon, Kikar Hashabbat reporter Haim Goldberg tweeted Sunday morning.

[...] The police representative told the judge: “We are in a security alert situation, and the presence of Jews on the ground could raise concerns about a threat of danger to the public in general.” He also mentioned suspicion about the accused having damaged the fence.

The President of the Jerusalem Magistrates’ Courts, Judge Shmuel Herbst, didn’t buy any of it. He noted that the accused, according to his testimony, “wished to immerse in the spring before Shabbat, in her honor, and his version was not refuted, as the investigation material revealed.” Had the police wanted to accuse him of damaging the fence, “it would have been appropriate to start this indictment in an orderly fashion and write that the accused should be incarcerated for intentional damage to property, conduct that may violate the public peace, breaking and entering, and conspiracy to commit a crime.” Which the cops only mentioned a full day after the initial arrest for dipping on the Arab side.

Then the judge added that “without underestimating these charges, it seems that it would have been better for such a request not to be submitted.” He noted that the young man did go through a crack in the fence, but it would be difficult to prove that he caused the crack, and he certainly did not intend to violate the public peace or conspire to commit a crime.

Did we mention all he wanted was to dip in the spring Erev Shabbat?

Finally, the judge made minced meat of the cops’ claim regarding the security situation: “This is a statement I do not understand. A study of the Declaration of Independence shows that this is a state that was established for the Jewish people, therefore, the stay of a Jewish person at one point or another does not constitute a ‘threat of danger to the public in general.’”

Here, it's the police who owe an apology for taking an anti-Israeli position that only serves to harm one's right to travel where they want, not based on their ethnic/religious status. The discrimination's disgraceful, and has to cease.

Labels: dhimmitude, haredi corruption, islam, Israel, Jerusalem, Judaism, misogyny, Moonbattery