The mass event, whose organizers refused to obey police officers and even attacked them, is a first-rate impudence - but has a broader context • The ultra-Orthodox public feels under attack by law enforcement and the media •
A secular man who roamed the ultra-Orthodox WhatsApp groups tonight would be horrified at the extreme reactions voiced by people who are perceived as mainstream on a daily basis, for the controversial wedding in Givat Zeev.
"Nazis", "horror" and other angry reactions were heard by people who only yesterday supported a mouth full of closure, and even gossip against violators of guidelines.
Photo: Police Spokeswoman
First of all, the obvious.
The wedding was illegal, tweeted corona instructions, and should be condemned outright.
The fact that people have allowed themselves to get married while thousands are infected with the corona virus, and hundreds are lying in critical condition in hospitals is first-rate insolence.
But the wedding is just a symptom of much more difficult events taking place below the surface.
The ultra-Orthodox sector has been in almost unprecedented unrest in recent times, especially after particularly harsh documentation of police violence against protesters and worshipers was published.
An officer who pushed an innocent child, a policeman who threw a bucket at a child, policemen who broke into synagogues and all of them saw a bloody man being led out in handcuffs, all dizzy, while his parents and family shouted and called for help.
"I have been crying for half an hour," wrote one of the participants in the WhatsApp group of influencers in the ultra-Orthodox sector.
And he is not alone.
Did the police act as required and appropriate in the incident in Givat Zeev?
Maybe, maybe even likely, but it no longer matters.
Even if the family members shouted and threw bottles of oil, even if the injured person just slipped and as a result bled, the buds of rage that have blossomed in recent weeks have sprouted and burst out through the ground.
This is not the wedding, this is the whole situation.
This can be seen, among other things, in the reactions of the ultra-Orthodox politicians who came out after the incident, according to which harsh words were spoken against the police and those in charge, to the point of threatening to resign from the coalition.
They realize that the slice of bread with the butter has overturned, and that the straw has broken the camel's back.
The ultra-Orthodox, for the most part, aligned themselves with the instructions in the first wave of the Corona after realizing that it was indeed an epidemic, which took about a week longer than the general public due to information difficulties.
They closed synagogues and study halls, canceled studies in yeshivas, one of the most critical things for the ultra-Orthodox world, at the risk that their youth would see and be tempted by the outside world, closed mikvahs for men and sat at home like other Israeli citizens.
Then they discovered that while they are canceling and stopping the most important things in their lives, a world as it is customary practices in parts of secular society.
The demonstrations in Balfour continued to take place in the name of a basic right, while in their sense their basic rights were trampled to the ground, and whenever the media asked to report a violation of guidelines it published pictures from Bnei Brak or Beitar Illit.
Did everyone follow the guidelines?
Certainly not, but with the hand in the heart even in the general public not everyone followed the guidelines.
In the second wave they were already much less disciplined, and when they heard that they would close the synagogues and stork yards on holidays something in them broke.
These are the most important days for a religious person, and for a follower who is unable to reach his Rebbe on holidays it is sometimes better to get sick in Corona, so in their eyes. Therefore, many of them refused to follow the guidelines and created the harsh image against them. These are in the Holocaust, in Siberia, and suddenly they are told to stop keeping these commandments.
In the first wave they held it, and then they saw the demonstrations in Balfour and people on the beach in Tel Aviv, so they would stop going to prayer or the mikveh ?! ". A secular person, they say, will not understand this, so it is not even worth explaining.
The general media, for its part, has ignited the fire.
Newspapers reported on one page a violation of ultra-Orthodox guidelines and called it harsh words, and on another page they embraced a restaurant owner who said he would open his business in violation of the guidelines.
Broadcasters devoted long minutes to an exciting item about a business owner who violates corona laws, and then dealt harshly with violating corona laws in the ultra-Orthodox sector.
Incitement, it is called wall-to-wall in the ultra-Orthodox world.
Then came the wedding at Givat Zeev, causing a certain eruption from the bubbling volcano.
People who previously reported on open synagogues called to come and make the bride and groom happy, surfers who had previously condemned all and all Corona cows sought to help the couple recover.
The wedding, which was a private event, became public, and many people, with or without masks, danced with each other while police on the street appeared to be afraid to disperse the crowd, perhaps for fear of riots.
The delusional and disturbing conduct of police officers is now happily in Givat Zeev.
Just outrageous!
pic.twitter.com/iP9G5Tg7L3
- Israel Cohen (@ Israelcohen911) October 14, 2020
There are quite a few people in the ultra-Orthodox sector who believe that the rift between the parties is dangerous and explosive.
That the day is near when a person will harm the ultra-Orthodox because they ostensibly do not follow the instructions of the corona.
Is this the founding event?
It is difficult to know, but there is no doubt that urgent action is needed to calm the winds.
The laws must be strictly enforced, not given to any sector or person who violates the guidelines and endangers the public, but on the other hand must act urgently to calm the spirits.
The ultra-Orthodox public is on the verge of an explosion, as is the secular public, and if one does, we may see difficult scenes on the streets of Israel.
Do not be right - be smart, says the well-known proverb.
Maybe it’s time to try and enforce the instructions without seeing cops leading a bleeding person out of the wedding, even if they are right.
Maybe it's time for some unity instead of a rift.