Haredim attack teen in Beit Shemesh
In a video circulated via WhatsApp, a girl is recorded in Beit Shemesh escaping from a raging ultra-Orthodox mob chasing her for dressing 'immodestly'; city's residents say the police fail to eradicate such violent recurrent incidents; police respond they are doing everything to preserve public order.
The ultra-Orthodox modesty squad operating in Beit Shemesh against the city's youth attempted Sunday to attack a young girl as she was walking in the street wearing "immodest" clothing.
In a video circulated via WhatsApp, the Haredim are seen chasing after the adolescent down Nehar HaYarden Street in Beit Shemesh. A complaint was filed to the Beit Shemesh police and an investigation has been launched into the matter.
According to one of the neighborhood's residents, teens who left Judaism gather every night "to smoke and drink alcohol, acting in a manner which is inappropriate to the neighborhood's character. We've not slept for the past last month."
The resident added that the teens sit demonstratively along the main street— Nehar HaYarden Street— and deliberately draw attention.
"I don't encourage the Haredim's violence. However, every story has two sides," she went on to say.
Some month ago, the modesty squad began operating against those teens, and in particular against those pertaining to families of the Breslov Hasidic movement who abandoned the path of ultra-orthodoxy.
The modesty squads demanded the families whose children had left Judaism to leave the neighborhood, which led to daily confrontations between the youth walking down the streets with "terrifying dogs and tasers" and dozens of Haredim.
The Nehar HaYarden's resident said that the police and Beit Shemesh municipality's City without Violence program activists were called to the scene almost every night. However, they did not do anything to put an end to the matter, according to the resident.
"My stairway is a mobile emergency room. Casualties go in and out in ambulances. We ask the police to come and show their presence beforehand, but they only come after being called (when a violent incident happens-ed)," she elucidated.
"The police officers stand helpless (attempting to contend with) the clashes between the Haredim and the teens," the resident explained.
The Police offered the following comments:"The police view harshly every delinquent behavior which arises on the backdrop of conflicts based on beliefs and values or any other matters and act accordingly to enforce, investigate and exhaust the law with those involved."
"As opposed to the allegations, every report delivered to the police regarding disturbances and or a violent altercation is met with the police's determined and uncompromised response.
"Despite the reality in which complaints are not usually filed in the police by the victims as it should be (including the case recorded on the video), the police act to locate those involved (in the case), to exhaust the law with them and to prevent incidents such as those.
"The police have detained one suspect involved in the incident recorded in the video, and further investigations are expected on which we cannot elaborate at this point.
"The police stresses that when a report or complaint are filed as well as when suspicions exist according to which a certain person's actions could cause disturbances or harming another person, we act according to the power given to us by the law to enforce it and prevent offenses in order to preserve the public order and ensure its safety," the police concluded.
