The letter I sent to Haredi MKs about Bet Shemesh violence

The following is a letter I wrote and emailed to the Haredi Members of Knesset, Rabbis Meir Porush, Moshe Gafni and Yaakov Litzman.

Feel free to copy and paste or write your own and send letters to them demanding they find a way to get involved.... Their email addresses are:
litzman@knesset.gov.il
mgafni@knesset.gov.il
mporush@knesset.gov.il



Shalom U'Vracha!
I live in Bet Shemesh. To be precise I live in Ramat Bet Shemesh A. I have lived here for nearly 9 years and even though there have been some issues in RBS A over the years, overall I must say it is a wonderful neighborhood and community.

RBS B has a community of kannoim that came from yerushalayim. They have spent their time making life miserable for all the residents of bet Shemesh, but especially for the residents of Ramat bet Shemesh both and A and B, but especially B. They have been violent, they have been abusive, they have been hostile, they have been provocative.

They moved into a city with a very mixed and diverse population and have been attempting, violently, to impose their ways on the rest of the residents. Their lifestyle is legitimate and I do not wish to deny them the right to live with their own Rabbonim with their own preferences. I do oppose their desire to force the rest of the community to live by their standards. Their standard claim of "We paid good money for our apartments and we deserve to live by our beliefs" holds no water. I also paid good money for my apartment. My neighbor paid good money for his apartment. The neighbor of the kannoi paid good money for his apartment.

We moved to a city that has diversity and most residents from varying backgrounds live together peacefully. The kannoim also moved to a city, bet Shemesh, that is diverse. they are welcome here like anybody else. Yet they choose to not live peacefully side by side with the rest of us. They choose to impose their lifestyle on the rest of us. I firmly reject that. If they cannot live peacefully with us, they should have moved to a place that only has their type of people.

That being said, I wonder why we have yet to hear from the Haredi leadership denouncing these people and their methods. The Rabbonim are quiet and the politicians are quiet. You find all sorts of benign and insignificant issues to be concerned about, yet the lifestyles of thousands of baalei batim and bnei torah that are being destroyed on a daily basis seems to give you no reason to speak out.

I request that you and your partners in the Haredi parties find a way to speak out against this phenomenon and against these people. I request to see you get involved in trying to find solutions to the conflict. When a makolet owned by a Haredi man in Lod was recently under fire, you ran to Lod to stand up for him. Why do we not see you in Bet Shemesh standing up for thousands of your voters?

You might respond that these people do not, generally, vote in elections. they have nothing to do with Degel Ha'Torah or Agudas Yisrael and you have no sway over them. Therefore your speaking out is a waste of time. There is no way you can get involved, as they reject your authority, you will say.

I remind you that in bet Shemesh there is a local party running under the banner of "Gimmel" made up of members of Degel and Aguda. These representatives, of your parties, have very publicly been announcing recently, on numerous occasions, in the local press, all the assistance they have been giving to the members of that community. Assistance that comprises funding, land for their institutions, future consideration in political arrangements, and more.

That means that not only have you not spoken out against these people and their actions, not only have you not fulfilled the basic responsibility of leadership and gotten involved in trying to find ways to protect your electorate and residents of Haredi neighborhoods, but you also have been providing them with assistance.

if you do not have it in you to speak out against them, at least stop helping them.

I do also wish to point out that in Bet Shemesh this is an election year. Municipal elections are coming up in about 10 months. A lot of your natural voters are disturbed by this and disenfranchised by the assistance provided by "gimmel" to these people and the lack of involvement by your people against these people. I think it would be prudent (putting it lightly), if you wish to have people voting for your local Bet Shemesh party along with voting for your party in future national elections, to speak out against the thugs who attack your constituents and get involved in finding solutions. Otherwise your voters will look to others for solutions and Gimmel will only have the kannoim to turn to, and we know they do not vote in the elections.

With blessings,
Raphael Gxxxxxxxx
RBS A