Peleg Yerushalmi issued a furious condemnation on Thursday following the decision of a Jerusalem District Court judge to release the driver who killed Yosef Eisenthal, z’l, to house arrest.
The statement not only expressed outrage at the decision but also stated that the judge is completely unfamiliar with the technical details of the incident.
“Deep shock at Judge Tamar Bar-Asher’s scandalous decision to release the bus driver who killed Yosef Eisenthal, z’l,” the statement began.
“The judge’s discretion is fundamentally flawed and distorted. This is a case in which a 14-year-old boy met his death…this is complete contempt for human life and the abandonment of the blood of the entire Chareidi sector.”
Emphasizing that the judge was not well-versed with the case she ruled on, the statement provided an example: “By way of illustration, in her decision, the judge arbitrarily and in total detachment from reality ruled that the driver dragged Yosef Eisenthal, z’l, only a few dozen meters. This is an absolute lie!”
“The facts: the incident began at the corner of Yirmiyahu Street and Tuval Street, where the driver drove wildly into the crowd, striking Eisenthal, z’l, and several other youths, one of whom clung to the bus.
“At the Yirmiyahu–Sarei Yisrael junction, he sped left onto Shamgar Street (where the youth who hung was flung aside and b’chasdei Hashem, emerged unharmed), while dragging Eisenthal, z’l, who was trapped under the bus, all along Shamgar Street up to the Belz–Ohel Yehoshua traffic circle.
“There he continued speeding and turned right onto Ohel Yehoshua Street until he was aggressively stopped by the police near the intersection of Minchas Yitzchak and Kedushas Aharon Streets.
“One and a half kilometers of dragging, crushing, torment, the killing of a 14-year-old boy, injuries, and the endangerment of the lives of dozens of people along the entire trail of blood—and this crazed driver is released.”
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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15 Responses
If you truly believe your blood isn’t cheap then you would not be sending your teenagers to run into streets with moving cars and to surround and bang on buses in action. I wasn’t going to say this before because of al tiftach peh but seeing some of the videos of the Peleg Hafgonas I knew that it was only a matter of time until someone was going to get killed. R’L
!!! וְהַחַי יִתֵּן אֶל־לִבּוֹ
The police needs to be condemned for calling it negligence instead of murder.
obviously this message contains a great deal of anguish, but feelings are not legal evidence. or the basis for a murder conviction. trying to block a bus is dangerous, no matter how riled up you are by the emotional rhetoric of your rabbi. more incitement isn’t going to make things better.
Wow, Peleg Yerushalmi are suddenly experts in law, this was not on my bingo card for 2026.
smerel: What happened to your filter that was blocking YWN? The filter broke?
>>>smerel: What happened to your filter that was blocking YWN? The filter broke?
My filter blocks the YWN coffee room like I said it would. Did you see me post there lately?
After having seen the video I side with the driver. He was surrounded by a mob of teenagers. He felt threatened and called a helpline but help didnt arrive.He tried to get away from ths mob by backing up but the mob actually ran after the bus and surrounded the bus again! This is unbelievable! I understand that he felt threatened and wanted to get out of that situation ASAP.
It is unbelievable Peleg and others are screaming that they are victims when they are the ones playing with fire. Shame on them. They dont understand that blocking vehicles and threatening drivers is not a game. It is unbelievable the heferkeit that goes on with these protests.
I support the Chareidim protesting the draft. I dont support their being so irresponsible to the point that it puts lives in danger.
Losing a youn bochur is heartbreaking however blocking traffic and thereby endangering lives is absolutley madness. Not one Rosh Yeshiva has spoken openly against this abhorrent activity that does not help the cause and is genevas zman
Maybe after this tragic event the Yeshivas will come to their senses to stop this
So Peleg feels the police should keep them safe and not just rely on Torah protecting them from danger.
Hishtadlus matters.
Wouldn’t that apply to the army as well
I’m not going to argue that there are people who do silly things especially that they endanger themselves without thinking about the consequences.
Surely there are ways for people to participate in protests without being in harms way. Those that don’t care will be in harms way and others will be safe.
But this incident is disturbing. As you can clearly see how the angry driver just took off through the crowd. It wasn’t like, all of a sudden people just stopped traffic and this happened. The worst part is how a sick judge just let out that person. This is an invitation for more such incidents.
I witnessed for many months leading up Oct 07 how the leftists protested like crazy and they did way worse then peleg ever did
I can guarantee that this incident would never happen in their protests, because if it did then that person would never see daylight again. The Chareidim are helpless against these animals.
Us Americans have to realize the real hardships these Chareidim are are going through. They are legally considered criminals worse then an Arab that east arrested for murder.
They are being crushed and crushed and the law is against them or law simply doesn’t exist for those crushing them.
I am not an extremist at all. I try to see the good parts in the secular Israelis. They are part of our family.
There are people that make such kinds of comments like who asked these people to protest or something else.
Where are your feelings for our chareidi brothers? Imagine being crushed in nyc or anywhere in the US.
We saw how many people were truly afraid of Mamdani winning. Because that would put us in a bad situation… the chareidim have this every day. The hate Chreidim get from yidden is worse from Goiykm sometimes
My message is to see the good in every yid and like him because he is a yid and just hate what he does or causes to you
As this was near a protest site, how comes, no police officer saw what happened and didn’t stop the bus for one and half kilometres? Did they intentionally turn a blind eye?
>>>As this was near a protest site, how comes, no police officer saw what happened and didn’t stop the bus for one and half kilometres? Did they intentionally turn a blind eye?
You gotta be kidding. A group that calls the police Nazis and tries to infuriate them whenever they come near the protests is now complaining that the police aren’t doing enough to protect them for their reckless behavior at their illegal protests?
>>>There are people that make such kinds of comments like who asked these people to protest or something else.
Where are your feelings for our chareidi brothers? Imagine being crushed in nyc or anywhere in the US.
I actually support protesting. Not only I would consider the military police arresting a Yeshiva Bochur as being a valid target for violent resistance . Ditto for those who are making the laws in the Supreme Court and the AG. But I do not and can not support protests that (1)are against random people or (2)are reckless. Doing so is hypocrisy to the whole haskafa that opposes drating Yeshiva Bochurim.
No I don’t consider a bochur under the threat of a forced draft away from Yeshiva who acted in the wrong manner to be a bad person. I’m the first the say אֵין אָדָם נִתְפָּס
בִּשְׁעַת צַעֲרוֹ. But they are misguided and doing the wrong thing. On a venue like this that has so much sympathism for their wrongdoing it is the place to call it out.
Plus if you are going to have so much sympathy for them you should also be sympathetic and sensitive to the situation many of those who want them drafted. I’m not going to go further but I will say this. Assah Hamelech was from the biggest Tzadikim in all of Jewish history. Yet even he made the mistake of drafting those who were learning when he faced enough military pressure. If such a Tzadik could have made such a mistake (and no he wasn’t punished as terribly as you would think reading some of the things said here) then we can also understand someone who grew up in a Zionist background making the same mistake too. Many of those who don’t are clearly pouring gasoline on the fire with their reactions and comments about the situation.
I don’t mean to be a nudnik, (I have already mentioned in a different comment that I believe the driver is a maniac and the bochurim that wound him up also have blood on their hands) but if you are going to argue with a judge about not knowing the facts of the case it would be wise to get their own facts straight. The distance from Touval street to Kedushas Aharon is around 600m. Not 1.5km. If you don’t beleive me go to google maps, right click and measure distance https://maps.app.goo.gl/NdrxjZ4nmctqcHcQ6. Again, this doesn’t in anyway diminish the crime but just silly to get this point wrong in an official statement to a judge.
Not that it in any way diminishes the crime committed but that distance is 600m not 1.5km. Check it yourself on google maps. Right click and press measure distance. If Peleg want to accuse the judge of not knowing the facts it would be wise for them to present the actual facts not get them equally wrong.