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27 Elul 5759 - September 8, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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News
A Shabbos Beating

by B. Kahn

Niron Meir Gil will never forget that Shabbos afternoon. It was on the way to mincha, the shul was not far from his house.

As he passed the corner of Ethiopia Street and Chazanovitz, he saw gangs there, scores of street thugs, a lot of hate. Ten of them attacked him.

This is not the first time this newspaper is covering the Ethiopia Street conflict. Chareidi residents have requested that the street be closed to traffic on Shabbos. The population on adjacent streets is entirely chareidi. Non- religious residents claim that it is an issue of religious coercion. They have appealed to the High Court against the decision of the Jerusalem municipality that the street be closed. Chareidi residents have appealed to the Supreme Court to order the Jerusalem municipality to carry out its decision to close the street, a decision that had been reached by legal process.

Confrontation over closing the street has resulted in violence. The majority of these incidents were perpetrated by hoodlums who had been brought specially to the area by left- wing parties. Following is Niron Meir Gil's traumatic experience as he told it to Yated Ne'eman. We bring his monologue, word for word (in translation):

"I live on Chayei Odom Street. That Shabbos morning I passed the corner of Ethiopia and Chazanovitz. Standing on that spot was a group of non-religious men and women who are connected with a non-religious institution on Ethiopia Street. They were wearing immodest clothing. They were making noise, being very wild on the street -- the street had been closed with police barricades. The chareidi residents that passed by did not relate to them at all.

Towards noon I left my house, going by way of Chazanovitz Street; I was going to daven mincha. They were still waiting in the same spot, hotheaded, noisy. They had turned on music. They turned the volume way up, and were going very wild with their cars. To the side stood a young guy with an iron rod in his hand, it seemed like the rod from the jack for changing a flat tire. Near him was a policeman, writing down his ID. information in his notebook. A small group of people gathered near the barricade, like four or five avreichim with children. They asked the policemen to ask the noisemakers to leave. The policeman said in response, pointing to his own name, written on the lapel of his shirt: "Complain about me." The policeman's name was Asa Gilad.

Suddenly the barricades started to move, the children that were there ran away, and two or three avreichim were left. The hoodlums started to beat them up. I saw a lot of blood, the blows were directed at heads, faces, ribs, by people who know what combat is. The policeman stood on the side. They didn't lift a finger to stop the violence. When I saw that blood was being spilled I couldn't stand aside, across the street . . . I ran to the fighting. I didn't use fists, I didn't kick. I only tried to halt the first attacker that I reached. I suddenly found myself on the floor. Two started kicking me: one in the leg, one toward the head. I kept trying to defend myself the whole time. I realized that I had fallen into a trap. They cracked my rib cage . . . the medical documents that I have indicate two broken ribs, a collapsed lung, complications.

"At some point someone yelled: `Stop, animals, you're killing him.' They backed off. Everything was still, silence, the war was over. The police did not approach yet. They observed from the side; they did not interfere. At this point, when I wanted to get up, I saw that I couldn't move my foot. I lifted the foot, the sole of my foot dipped at a forty five degree angle downward -- everything inside was crushed. I crawled to Baharan Street nearby. When I got there, I wanted to get away, because the policemen were not coming to help me. One of the ones who had kicked me stood near a policeman, pointed to me and yelled at me, "Shabbos," and laughed in my face. The policemen stood with their backs near their cars, on Chazanovitz, corner of Ethiopia, in the middle of the square. When I got there, and they saw me crawling, only then they approached me.

"One of the policemen was in shock. He tried desperately to bind my foot. The hoodlums wanted to order me an ambulance, but I told them it was not life-threatening -- there was no blood -- I would get to the hospital on my own powers or with a non-Jew. I went into shock from the pain. My nerves stopped functioning. A few moments later, two chareidi Jews took me away in a wheel chair to Bikur Cholim Hospital's emergency room. From there I went by ambulance through one of the organizations, with a non-Jewish driver, to Sha'arei Tzedek Hospital.

"The police, on the face of things, should have opened an investigation immediately, the moment someone is found to be a victim of violence. No one came to question me in the hospital. The next day, when the doctors saw that they couldn't operate on my leg because of swelling, they sent me home until the swelling would go down. I called the police. For a day and a half they made fun of me, they sent me in circles, they said I would need to come in person. I said: With a smashed leg, a temporary cast, on the way to an operation? My wife does not speak Hebrew. Can't you come and register a complaint? After a day and a half an investigator by the name of Nissim Ze'ev from the Moriah police station came to see me, and I registered a complaint.

"What's happened since then? Nothing. The hoodlums roam free, the police have their names. They required me to go to the Russian Compound, despite severe pains, to see identifying photographs. I did manage to identify them. `This is one of the ones who kicked me,' I told the police investigators. I tried to locate the investigator who had taken my testimony, but the response was, `That investigator is on vacation.' I've already given up trying to find out what's going on with the investigation."

Niron Meir Gil intends to send copies of his medical documents, and enclose a letter describing the chain of events that led to this grave incident, to the government prosecutor, to the attorney general, to the state comptroller, and to all other relevant bodies, with the question, "Why does investigation of such a grave incident make no progress?"

Rabbi Moshe Gafni, to whom Gil has turned for help, has notified him that he will help him in any way that he can, and that he even intends to approach the chief of police of the Jerusalem region, Commander Yair Yitzchaki.

The spokesman for the police in the Jerusalem region has issued this response: "The Jerusalem police department opened an investigation following the registration of a complaint. At this time a number of suspects have been interrogated. Contrary to his words, in the course of the identification procedure during which he was shown pictures, he did not identify the attackers. The police have summoned additional suspects for interrogation, and investigation is continuing."


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