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."
