Chareidi lives matter

 After the terrible Miron tragedy, it is easy to find essays and articles pointing the main finger at the Israeli police. This article is different, though, since it discusses a complaint sent to the minister of interior affairs and the chief of police on the 19^th of April, ten days before the Miron tragedy, stating that the Israeli police doesn’t care about the lives or welfare of Chareidi individuals.

 On ג׳ אייר , the 15th of April, A Chareidie teenager was beaten up on the light rail in Jerusalem. Now this happens from time to time, but this time the attacker put the video of the attack on the TikTok social platform, forcing the police to locate and prosecute the attacker.

Shmuel Marziano, a high ranking police officer, was asked by a radio station what the police were doing to protect the Chareidi Community from the recurring attacks by Arabs. He first said some political mumbo jumbo (the parents of the attacked boy handled it well, etc) and then said something really significant: The police view these attacks as childish pranks!

As a mother of children who frequently use public transportation in Jerusalem, I was no less then horrified from the flippant attitude towards my children’s lives. I sent a formal complaint (above) to the police,  the Ministry of Interior Affairs and the state comptroller. Obviously received no replies.

The tragedy in Miron has many parties to share the blame, but the final trigger was five policeman who  blocked the exit (Without blocking the entrance, of course..) because they had been told to arrange the people in “Capsules” due to covid19. Survivors say (and there are videos to support this) that people cried to them “We are dying!”, but were disregarded. Only when people directly in the policemen’s line of vision started dropping dead; did they open the blockade, but by then it was too late. They tried their best to help once they saw people dying with their own eyes, but by then it was too late.

How could such a thing happen? How can policeman hear people saying they are dying and continue to robotically obey orders and let people die?

The answer is very simple: The police didn’t take the dying men seriously because they don’t take Chareidim seriously. They treat Chariedie people like a sub species. Something between a child and an imbecile. When these policemen heard people complaining they were dying, what they really heard was a kid saying “I can’t, I am tired, I am dying to get out of here” and they reacted like a parent saying “You are exaggerating… just have patience…”.

On Friday morning, shaken to the core, I sent my complaint to every Chareidie MK of Gimmel And Shas. Judging by their functioning during the Covid19 crisis, it doesn’t seem that they  either care too much about chaireidi lives, so I am not keeping my hopes up for a real change.

May משיח come soon and redeem us from those who we pay to protect us, yet do the opposite.

Chareidi lives matter.