A.K. (name on file), an activist affiliated with the ‘Yerushalmi branch’ which follows HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Auerbach Shlita was convicted on Sunday 8 Elul of insulting a chareidi IDF soldier during a tefilla in Beit Knesset Beit Yisrael in the Ezras Torah area of Yerushalayim. He is also convicted of insulting police at the station. He was acquitted of physical assault. He becomes the first chareidi to be convicted of assaulting a member of the chareidi community for serving in the IDF, the so-called ‘chardakim’.

The incident occurred a year ago while the soldier was davening maariv in the shul while dressed in an IDF uniform and accompanied by his father. The defendant shouted ‘Chardak’ at the plaintiff, shouting “Get out of here, take off your yarmulke. Why are you davening here?”. He continued insulting the soldier while the latter tried davening.

Others shouted at the soldier too and one approached him and tried to photograph him with a phone as the soldier asked him not to. The defendant and other approached the soldier and punched him with a closed fist in the area of his chest and shoulder. The soldier’s father tried to intervene on his son’s behalf by distancing the attackers but he too fell victim as they began pushing and punching him.

The defendant shouted against police in the station when he was questioned including “Amalek police” and “Satan police”.

The court stated “We must view the actions of the defendant as directed at the complainant who was fulfilling his duties as an IDF soldier and not just a regular person”. The court explained the actions were clearly directed against a public servant and therefore and affront to the IDF and represent a challenge to the very legal status of the state and its agencies.

Sentencing hearing to follow.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)