Police have arrested two youths suspected of involvement in the assault of a 50-year-old avreich in Beitar Illit on Shabbos Parshas Shemos. Apparently in response to the arrest, their friends torched a car outside the town's main beis knesses.
The avreich had to be taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in moderate condition on Shabbos afternoon, after being struck on the head with a sharp rock. Earlier he had broken up a squabble that erupted when a group of avreichim reproached a band of wayward youths loitering in the park.
Local residents were irate over the police's slow response time when summoned to the site of the confrontation by a local (non-Jewish) security guard. They also complained that the municipal security services are inadequate, despite the monthly tax.
Fringe youth disturb the peace on a regular basis, say Givat Alef residents. Rocks are sometimes thrown and epithets shouted, but the incident last Shabbos was unprecedented in its severity, they said.
In Ashdod, police and local rabbonim decided to employ a "Shabbos goy" to patrol the city's chareidi neighborhoods in a security vehicle to keep the streets safe.
Earlier the police apprehended and placed under house arrest a young man suspected of threatening one of the city's rabbonim.
Last week a band of local hooligans began hurling rocks into a shul, injuring an avreich who had to be evacuated to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.
