Haredi residents of the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem are protesting the hanging of an IDF soldier in effigy on the side of a building in their neighborhood, and claim that it was the act of a lone extremist and did not represent all the residents.
“We’re asking you to tell the truth,” the residents told News 0404, “The residents of Mea She’arim are not against the IDF and are not against IDF soldiers. Taking a case of one extremist and blaming our whole neighborhood for it is really false,” they insisted.
שוטרים הסירו ממבנה בשכונת מאה שערים בירושלים בובה בדמות חייל שנתלתה במקום. מבדיקה ראשונית עולה כי הייתה ספוגה בחומר דליק, ככל הנראה במטרה להציתה בהמשך. נפתחה חקירה pic.twitter.com/inbCI9a21i
— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police)
“A short while ago, Israel Police received a report about the hanging in effigy of a soldier in the Mea She’arim neighborhood of Jerusalem,” the police reported Friday morning, adding, “Police forces deployed in the area reacted quickly and with determination, they found the building on which the soldier’s doll was hung and removed it. An initial investigation revealed that the doll was soaked with a combustible substance, apparently in order to ignite it later.”
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman condemned the act in his Twitter account, declaring: “The sight of the soldier’s hanging doll in Mea She’arim is shocking.”
“My job as defense minister is to defend against such instigators, and my role as a citizen is to fight them politically,” Liberman added. “The job of the authorities is to put them behind bars.”
And, finally, Liberman drove home his point: “I expect the heads of the Haredi parties to condemn this act.”
Or, as the residents of Mea She’arim have put it so succinctly, “It does not represent us, it only causes us harm.”