Beit Shemesh is still a nightmare area
After several years in which Beit Shemesh has dropped off the media radar, the troubled city was thrust back into the limelight last week when a haredi (ultra-Orthodox) youth lobbed a stone at a 50-yearold woman, injuring her and causing her to bleed profusely from the head.If they vandalize flags, that pretty much confirms those Haredi clan members are anti-Israel. But physical violence is far worse, and one writer at the Jewish Press warned that if nothing's done, we could be experiencing murder next. Mayor Moshe Abutbol's staff is partly to blame for this, because they refuse, deliberately or otherwise, to speak out against the thugs or take any other kind of action on their part to dissuade them. I think this is cause for filing another lawsuit against the city hall.
But according to non-haredi residents and activists, despite the lack of attention the city has received, such incidents have been part of their lives for years and are an ongoing reality when entering extremist areas.
These extremists are part of a very small minority of the overall haredi community, often associated with radical Jerusalemite communities that originally came from the equally radical Mea She’arim neighborhood in Jerusalem, and are fiercely anti-Zionist, violent and puritanical in their approach to Jewish law in general and female modesty in particular.
For non-haredi Beit Shemesh residents, especially women, who pass through the most radical neighborhood in the city, Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet, being spat at and cursed by children in the area occurs as a matter of course, while Israeli flags flying from cars are routinely ripped off.
Even stone throwing, although relatively rare, is a well-known threat. Although there have been few incidents in which anyone has been injured, some residents have spoken of near misses where serious injury could have occurred.
Just this past Saturday night, a 15-year-old haredi youth threw a stone at a police patrol car, damaging the windshield, and was arrested over the incident.
Another resident, who is religious, wrote recently on a Facebook thread that haredi youths shouted “shiksa” at her daughter and threw part of a cement block at the group of girls she was walking with, narrowly missing one of them.
Indeed, social media is full of reports by Beit Shemesh residents of various attacks of one kind or another.
On a related note, there was another case of stone-throwing at vehicles:
A stone was thrown Tuesday at a bus travelling on Nehar Hayarden St. in Beit Shemesh. Nobody was injured and no damage was reported.His parents should face as much punishment as he should.
Police arriving at the scene joined the driver and after searching the site they located a 13-year-old boy suspected of throwing the stone. The boy was detained for interrogation in the Beit Shemesh police station.
Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, misogyny, Moonbattery, terrorism