Yoram Kaniuk
God has no mercy on cops
Who would want to join police force that is being beaten, humiliated by haredim?
Our police commissioner made a surprising declaration: The police will no longer tolerate “Nazi” chants and wild attacks on officers. That’s very nice of him. In Israel, the haredim and settlers are allowed to beat up police officers and soldiers, refer to them as “bloody Nazis,” curse them, and threaten then with boycotts, but now it’s as though the police chief returned from an extended trip to Austria and got scared by what he saw there.
His police force, just like the army, honors rioters if they are religious, and particularly if they are settlers and haredim. Had an American referred to a police officer as “Nazi,” he would have been arrested immediately. In Israel they are detained and then sue the police for discriminatory action because they were hit back.
Clashes
After another violent Shabbat in Jerusalem, Commissioner Dudi Cohen talks about boundaries of freedom of protest
In America, rabbis were handcuffed and detained because they committed crimes, while here the rabbis are merely being warned not to return to the scene of the crime next week. But after all, they are the army of God and they wear God’s uniform, so who would see the injustice, the absence of police, government, compassion, or a desire to fight the racism spreading through the courts, the police, and the national-religious education system.
Who would want to join a police force that is being beaten and humiliated like that, when at the end of the story we will likely see the indictment of a poor motorist who apparently attempted to escape the violent haredim and ended up dragging a young man he did not see. Perhaps this motorist will end up in jail, because he is neither haredi nor religious, and also drove on Shabbat, so he apparently deserves any punishment.
