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Photo: Yaov Galai
Haredi riots (Archive photo)
Photo: Yaov Galai
Police rescued tax investigators
Photo: Saya Agozi

Yeshiva students attack income tax officials

Haredi rioter in Bnei Brak: We pelted them with tomatoes, smashed windscreens, and slashed tires

Income tax investigators came under a violent attack in the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, on Monday afternoon, and it is believed that police saved the lives of the officials.

 

The Tax Authority has launched a campaign against severe violations in the ultra-Orthodox sector, and investigators raided four haredi charity centers used as fronts for changing money where hundreds of thousands of dollars have disappeared.

 

One of the well known centers raided usually has dozens of people seeking interest-free loans and cashing in dollars at the lowest cost in the market.

 

On Monday, however, the party was over, when tax officials raided the premises and photographed all the checks in the facility. At that point, however, a riot began. Rumors of the raid spread around the city, and within minutes hundreds of yeshiva students arrived.

 

'Things got messy'

 

The neighborhood residents who arrived on the scene snatched documents from the hands of the officials, attacked their vehicles, beat them, threw them on the floor and kicked them.

 

"All the guys from the yeshiva came and then things got messy. We bought tomatoes and threw them at the officials. The officials took shelter in one of the houses. In the meantime we broke their windshields and slashed all of the tires. We didn't leave one windshield whole," one rioter boasted.

 

The tax officials called the police, who came to the rescue of the besieged investigators. One of the officials was hospitalized at the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, where she was treated for shock.

A senior Tax Authority official said: "We are acting throughout the sector without fear, and we view these attempts to harm the officials with severity."

 

Dudi Nissim, Haim Levinson, and Gad Lior contributed to this report

 


פרסום ראשון: 06.06.06, 15:56
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