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| An apparent Charedi victim of police brutality (VIN) |
On Monday, a Bnei Brak resident was forcibly pushed down at the back of a store, suffering facial abrasions and bruises which required him to be hospitalized. The man was not a criminal nor was he exhibiting unusual behavior. In most chareidi neighborhoods, especially those where the vast majority of people already contracted coronavirus, there is no facemask wearing both in shuls and in public places, except for public transport where it is still required and enforced.
There is absolutely no excuse for such brutality. It is sickening. There needs to be an independent investigation. This cop ought to be suspended pending that investigation to determine the facts. And if as I suspect the evidence shows that the victim did nothing to deserve that kind of severe treatment from a cop, then the cop ought to lose his job. And the victim ought to sue that cop (along with the entire municipal police department) for all the damages he is legally entitled to.
Normally I am loathe to criticize the police. I tend to give law enforcement the benefit of the doubt in most cases. Enforcing the law is a dangerous job and mistakes can happen. Innocent people can sometimes get hurt. But in this case it does not seem like a mistake. It seems to be deliberate.
Unfortunately police brutality exists everywhere. Including Israel. Law enforcement needs to do a better job to weed out individuals that are prone to violence. But at the same time law enforcement is a cornerstone of every civilized society and ought to be fully supported. These are not 2 mutually exclusive things. Getting rid of the chaff and retaining the wheat is what is needed so that law enforcement will work the way it is supposed to.
Arutz Sheva reports an interesting ‘explanation’ for this beating which was offered by Charedi MK, Yisrael Eichler. He said the following:
…inciting statements by Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) blaming the haredi sector for the rising cost of living…
"The one (Liberman) who called to throw the haredim in wheelbarrows into a garbage dump has once again found a target for his arrow. He continues to permit spilling the blood of haredim, and incites the public to begin riots in Israel."
I am not a fan of Liberman. To say the least. His comments about Charedim are offensive in the extreme. And quite deplorable. His bias is so strong, so evident, that in my view he does not deserve a seat in the Keneset, let alone a ministry position. Nor does anyone else that uses dangerous rhetoric like that.
I realize that half the Keneset (including many Charedi MKs) are included since they all talk this way against people they don’t like. But that does not excuse it. That kind of rhetoric does in fact incite others – including the police - to take matters into their own hands and do violence to the targets of those venomous comments.
But if Liberman is responsible for a police beatings of innocent Charedim, then Charedi politicians that talk that way about people they don’t agree with are just as guilty when extremist Charedi mobs are incited to do violence to those targets. It works both ways.
It’s probably true that rhetoric like this coming out of the mouths of Israeli politicians contributes to this sad phenomenon. But I think there is a lot more to it than that.
In the case of the incident under discussion, the beating did not take place in a vacuum. Although it is my personal belief that the vast majority of Charedim in Bnei Brak wouldn’t hurt a fly the fact is that the police are frequently the targets of violence perpetuated by people that look like that poor Charedi victim. That does not make it right. It is clearly no excuse. But it does explain where the bias comes from. Liberman just exploits it for his own political purposes.
In the meantime - until Israel can rid law enforcement of its ‘bad apples’ it would probably be a good idea for Charedim in areas like Bnei Brak to simply comply with the law and wear a mask– even though it is generally not observed by most of the public and overlooked by the police. Because sometimes it isn’t overlooked. And more often than not, it is the Charedi world that seems to get the brunt of the brutality. So fair or not, better to play it safe than to take a chance on ending up in the hospital.