Policemen in Jerusalem, under direct orders from District
Commander Commissioner Ilan Franco, have been seeding
violence and wreaking destruction aimed at thousands of Meah
Shearim and Beit Yisrael residents, ruthlessly beating and
trampling passersby, destroying private homes based on a
cruel desire for revenge and illegal collective punishment,
all supposedly in the name of law and order.
According to chilling eyewitness accounts, for the past
several nights Franco's policemen have been applying brute
force against residents of the two Jerusalem neighborhoods
for no reason and without provocation. The attacks on
innocent citizens in their homes are especially cruel. "I've
often heard of complaints regarding violent conduct by
soldiers and policemen toward Palestinians," said one Meah
Shearim resident, "but past descriptions of events in the
Territories are nothing compared to the barbaric conduct of
Jerusalem policemen in recent nights."
Police officials are of course denying any connection with
acts of violence by their officers. One television news
reporter saw Special Patrol Unit officers mount the sidewalk
on motorcycles and beat passersby ruthlessly. The scene was
broadcast immediately but police spokesmen were quick to
issue a statement saying the report was false.
Other deceitful notices to the media also refute eyewitness
reports by chareidi residents. Special Patrol Unit officers
have been carrying out horrendous acts with the aid of water
cannons against innocent citizens, passersby and even in the
homes of roshei yeshivos.
One night this week the family of a prominent rosh yeshiva
residing in Beit Yisrael was awakened without warning by the
sound of all of the windows being shattered by a water
cannon.
On Motzei Shabbos a sick 80-year-old widow also had her
windows smashed by a water cannon as large quantities of
water filled her Meah Shearim apartment. Some of the water
used contained a dye that ruins any fabric it comes into
contact with. The alarming action was based on orders by the
Jerusalem Police Commander and took place at a time when the
streets were empty.
That same night a Judaica painter in his 80s was also
awakened from his sleep by the sound of breaking glass as
water flooded his apartment, destroying several paintings he
has been working on as well as painting supplies and
implements.
At one home on Rechov Ein Yaakov the head of the family was
out late. At 11:30 p.m. his wife, who was alone with their
five small children, was terrified as powerful jets of water
came crashing through the windows. The children went into a
panic, crying out for help, with nobody to come to their aid.
The water damage to their home was extensive.
In the Batei Nathan neighborhood lives a family planning to
marry off their son this week, but the water cannons ruined
all of the wedding clothes as well as many of the apartment
furnishings, and left the family in a state of alarm for
hours.
"Almost every third home in Meah Shearim and Beit Yisrael has
been damaged in one way or another," says a local resident.
"It's really shocking. Children walk the streets during the
day in a state of panic and fear, and are afraid to sleep
alone at night. Never has our area been visited by such a
pogrom, which is under the official auspices of the
police."
On various occasions policemen walked through empty streets
late at night and, without any provocation, pounced on
innocent passersby. On Motzei Shabbos, for instance, shortly
after midnight, an elderly man set out for the mikveh
with a towel on his shoulder. From there he planned to go
to a local beis medrash to learn until morning.
As he passed through one of the narrow passageways of Meah
Shearim neighbors peering from a window spotted policemen
ready to beat him. They warned him to run, but he could not
understand why he should flee. The man continued along his
way and had to take a severe beating at the hands of
police.
As part of the police pogrom, policemen began banging on
doors along several streets in Meah Shearim. In one
passageway they pounded on the door of a 60-year-old sofer
stam who could not understand why the police began
beating him ruthlessly.
Frightened residents describe how policemen lie in wait in
stairwells and descend on passersby, beating them with billy
clubs.
On Sunday Rabbi Atty. Mordechai Green, director of Betzedek,
sent an urgent letter to Commissioner Franco warning him that
the police's illegal conduct was liable to bring him to file
an immediate High Court appeal in the name of Meah Shearim
and Beit Yisrael residents.
"We have been receiving numerous complaints from residents of
chareidi neighborhoods about arbitrary physical attacks and
property damage for no real reason and completely
unjustified, which district policemen allegedly perpetrated
at night against innocent residents . . . This appears to be
collective punishment initiated without any justification,"
writes Rabbi Green in his letter to the Jerusalem District
Commander. "You are being asked to immediately issue
instructions to refrain from any collective punishment."
On Tuesday Jerusalem Mayor Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky also called
on the Jerusalem District Commander to rein in his policemen
and put a stop to the violence against neighborhood residents
in light of numerous complaints the Mayor looked into
personally.
"In addition to the serious complaints of severe violence by
policemen, which includes beating passersby using billy clubs
while riding by on motorcycles, dozens of residents from the
Meah Shearim area have contacted the municipality claiming
that policemen have caused extensive property damage with no
justification," the Mayor said. "Based on the complaints
received at the municipality the police have been using very
high-powered water cannons, deliberately aiming them at local
homes. As a result heavy damage has been caused, with windows
shattered and the homes themselves filled with water and the
furniture totally destroyed." Besides the property damage,
the Mayor said these actions pose a genuine threat to human
life, especially for elderly people and children.
Addressing a Knesset plenum on Tuesday, MK Rabbi Avrohom
Ravitz said, "Based on numerous testimonies emerging from the
field the police apparently chose to engage in collective
punishment, harming the innocent and seeding widespread
destruction. Israel Police cannot be allowed to apply
unreasonable force in dispersing demonstrations."
During a meeting of the Knesset House Committee on Monday, MK
Rabbi Moshe Gafni told the Minister of Internal Security and
the Chief of Police that there have been decent relations
between the chareidi public and the police in recent years,
but this week's events in Meah Shearim are wholly
unacceptable. "Collective punishment is being given to an
entire neighborhood. Water cannons are being shot into homes
where the residents are totally uninvolved. This must
stop."
