Haredim gone wild
ABC's Middle East correspondent Anne Barker recounts being attacked by a riotous crowd or ultra-Orthodox Jews protesting the opening of a carpark on Shabbat:
... I was aware that earlier protests had erupted into violence on previous weekends - Orthodox Jews throwing rocks at police, or setting rubbish bins alight, even throwing dirty nappies or rotting rubbish at anyone they perceive to be desecrating the Shabbat.
But I never expected their anger would be directed at me. ...
I suddenly found myself in the thick of the protest -- in the midst of hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews in their long coats and sable-fur hats.
They might be supremely religious, but their behaviour -- to me -- was far from charitable or benevolent.
As the protest became noisier and the crowd began yelling, I took my recorder and microphone out of my bag to record the sound.
Suddenly the crowd turned on me, screaming in my face. Dozens of angry men began spitting on me.
I found myself herded against a brick wall as they kept on spitting -- on my face, my hair, my clothes, my arms.
It was like rain, coming at me from all directions -- hitting my recorder, my bag, my shoes, even my glasses.
Big gobs of spit landed on me like heavy raindrops. I could even smell it as it fell on my face.
Somewhere behind me -- I didn't see him -- a man on a stairway either kicked me in the head or knocked something heavy against me. ...
Here's the full account.
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Notice how David Sternlight places all responsibility on the victim rather than on the perpetrators. That tells me all I need to know about his moral compass or lack thereof.
The digusting behavior of these Haredim would have been no less immoral, no less vile, no less a disturbing mirror of the self-righteous violence preferred by the Wahhabist sect of Islam had it been an Israeli Jew they were spitting on and committing violence against.
The difference between these Haredi and Wahhabists is one of degrees rather than of substance. Oh sure, they each rationalize their disgusting and violently anti-social behavior via different dogmatic creeds but the end result and the apparent reasoning process which preceeds it is identical.
I have no time for the heredim, but critics of their actions in this case need a bit of background. Anne Barker of the ABC is of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, not the USA’s ABC. She has reproted in a most biased way on ME events and she has also reported falsely on April 23. After a complaint from the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council, the ABC (Australia’s equivalent to the USA’s NPR) apologised. While I utterly deplore anyone spitting, if Barker was recognised as a hostile reporter, her presence would have been seen as provocative by people prone to uncivilised, indeed un-Jewish, behavior.
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David Sternlight
07/06/09 01:27 PM
Although you were not Jewish, the crowd had no way to know that. Absent visible identification as a foreign journalist (something like “ABC-TV USA"), you inserted yourself into a heated protest and the crowd assumed you were a local Jew, desecrating the Sabbath. It was a reasonable assumption, given where you were, which was not in the US on a quiet street but in the middle of a religious riot.
When a journalist goes into a war zone (or anything similar) she assumes the risks. Lucky thing you weren’t in Palestinian territory under parallel circumstances; you might have been stoned to death.
Creating a piece about the “vicious orthodox” does you no credit under the circumstances. Playing with fire WILL get one burned.
I’m shocked, shocked that by going into the middle of a riot you got rioted upon.