Residents of Jerusalem's Kiryat Yovel neighborhood were
infuriated last Friday morning when the posts of the
neighborhood eruv were torched by a group of Meretz
activists with the backing of the officials on the board of
the neighborhood's community administration. The fires also
spread to a nearby canyon, leaving dozens of acres scorched.
Firefighters spent several hours trying to contain the
blaze.
Speaking to Yated Ne'eman reporters, eyewitnesses
said, "At 9:00 am we saw a group of secular people who looked
like tourists, wearing bucket hats, along with several
Romanians standing together and sawing the posts of the
internal neighborhood eruv at the corner of Sderot
Herzl and Rechov Zangvil. We called the municipal inspector,
who arrived at the site with police personnel.
"The group turned out to be Meretz activists, including a
councilman representing the party, and the chairman of the
community administration, who came to `provide security' for
the burning of the posts. The city inspectors and the police
halted the removal of the posts following a quarrel that
broke out, ordering the group to leave the area."
A short time later neighborhood avreichim learned that
the group of instigators had gone to the wadi to take
down other eruv posts. The avreichim who went
to the site saw a fire starting to spread in the wadi as a
vehicle carrying the Romanians fled the scene. They took down
the license plate number and called the police, who were
again dispatched to the neighborhood.
Several fire trucks also arrived and spent some five hours
getting the blaze under control. One phone line was melted by
the flames, downing phone lines on Rechov Zangvil. Local
residents joined the efforts to extinguish the fire when the
flames approached Rechov Zangvil, forcing nearby residents to
evacuate their homes. By about 5:30 p.m. firefighters had
managed to contain the blaze.
Neighborhood residents filed a police complaint and Jerusalem
Police say they are investigating the case.
Deputy Mayor Rabbi Uri Maklev, who received real-time
updates, said, "This incident is another instance in a series
of deliberate acts of incitement by political figures trying
to foment anti-religious provocation in preparation for the
elections, especially in these areas. The political figures
involved in these actions are known to us, but we won't be
deterred and in the final analysis destroying the eruv
poles merely strengthens our resolve and unites the
residents, as has already been demonstrated in other
neighborhoods, while weakening the side of the
instigators."
Rabbi Maklev said, "We plan to see to it that the
perpetrators of this grave act be prosecuted to the full
extent of the law, and especially those who receive salaries
from the Matnasim [the company that funds community
centers] and public bodies, while waging anti-religious
wars."
