Neturei Karta support the attack: "Soldiers like a thief in Mea Shearim"

The day after the attack on the orthodox soldier in the neighborhood of Meah Shearim in Jerusalem, there are those who support it: "It's just like a thief will come to your house and you'll defend yourself," says Yisrael Meir Hirsch, leader of 'Neturei Karta' and one of the residents of the neighborhood. "Will you go ask the rabbi whether to attack or to remove him from the house?"

Hirsch himself was not at home during the attack, but he did not hesitate to congratulate It. "These soldiers are thieves, stealing the Orthodox identity. There should be no distinction between a religious and a secular soldier. A Haredi who treads on the threshold of the army becomes totally secular, even if he prays and puts on tefillin 10 times a day.

"The goal of the Zionists in Israel is to go against the religion of the Jewish people. The army is one of Zionism's infrastructure through which people try to remove the Jewish religion. Such an event would not only happen in Meah Shearim, there is consensus in the ultra-Orthodox public to deny access to all those who try to harm us."

Is aggressiveness the correct way? We asked.

"The police operated aggressively. Anything of what happened yesterday is not contrary to the law or the freedom of expression. I call on all those criticizing the Orthodox to return two weeks back and read the story of a soldier who was beaten because he tried to hide his identity. Where were they then?"

"There is a clear tendency to denigrate the Haredi sector. Once it is exclusion of women, the next time that the exclusion of Haredim and now this exclusion of soldiers. The incitement against the ultra-Orthodox public is very welcome and serves our interest."

Yosef W. 19, of Meah Shearim neighborhood, attended yesterday the vicinity of the attack. "A soldier who comes to Meah Shearim is for us as like a missionary who came to the synagogue," he explains. "A secular soldier who enters the neighborhood will not get attacked like a soldier with a kippa. When a Haredi soldier goes through the neighborhood, it affects the education of our children who see a man with a kippa and IDF uniform - those two things conflict with each other."

• Did you think this would happen?

"No. No one thought it would come to such proportions. The goal was to protest and the soldier to leave the neighborhood." Yosef also criticizes the police: "There was no violence against the soldier. Only shouting. There is no way we would beat a soldier. Merely protest.

"Police seized a ride to create headlines. Why, after they rescued the soldier did they remain in the neighborhood for two hours? You rescued him. Leave us alone. Their goal was clear and we got the proof two hours later - headlines of the media."

A number of haredi soldiers we spoke with this morning said that they feel hurt. "Are they waiting for the blood of an Orthodox soldier to spill?" says one of them, serving in one of the Shachar tracks. "These extremists are not disciplined to Orthodox leadership. The police are the ones that should fight against them already three months ago, when the Chardakim campaign began - and did nothing. Now? Everybody responds to the media, but no one will do anything. In a few days a soldier will go through the neighborhood in Bnei Brak and will be attacked again. So what have we done here?"

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!