Watch: Selective Enforcement Against Chareidim At Israeli Demonstrations

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — At the daily demonstrations taking place outside Prime Minister Netanyahu’s house in Balfour street in central Jerusalem, tens of thousands of demonstrators congregate, many of whom are not wearing masks. Yet police for some reason ignore this flagrant violation of coronavirus regulations and do not enforce the regulations. However Chareidim are constantly targeted, reprimanded and fined for not wearing masks.

A blatant example of this selective enforcement took place on Saturday night, when a left-wing secular activist, Abie Binyamin, interviewed Chaim, a Chareidi pro-Netanyahu demonstrator for his social media sites. During the interview both Chaim and Binyamin took off their masks in order to communicate more effectively. However police called over Chaim and wanted to give him a fine for not wearing his mask, while completely ignoring Binyamin.

בלפור, מוצאי שבת האחרונה, בעוד אלפים מפגינים מול המעון כשרבים מהם ללא מסכה -פעיל השמאל אייבי בנימין ואדם חרדי משוחחים. את מי יעכבו השוטרים? זאת אכיפה בררנית! pic.twitter.com/ORHKhNA0nG

— אבי גדלוביץ' (@avigad27) August 31, 2020

Only after Chaim requested the intervention of deputy chief inspector Kobi Yaakobi of the Moriah police station, he was released after receiving a warning for his behavior.

Chaim told B’Hadrei Chareidim that “I was at the demonstration surrounded by anarchists without masks or social distancing. From the first minute I was with a mask and I took it off for the interview just as the interviewer did. Suddenly four policeman approached me and demanded my ID in order to give me a fine. I tried to explain to them that I had only taken off the mask for the interview but they wouldn’t listen. Unfortunately this was a humiliating experience which I only went through because I wear a kippa. Its sad that the police which is supposed to serve all of us targets religious people.

Police spokesmen responded to the claims, stating that “we categorically reject the claim of selective enforcement. Israeli police enforce daily over the entire country the emergency regulations without differing between religion, race or gender and without any bias.”