is it anti-haredism or not?

I don't know if the woman at the center of the recent headlines and the source for the latest riots in Jerusalem is innocent or guilty.

The truth is I don't even know all the details of the story -it did not interest me that much. Sick mother, sick kid, mother allegedly tries to starve kid, mother arrested. End of story, no interest to me. There are sick people everywhere, in every community, in every society. If they don't take care of themselves, if the community does not take care of them, they will harm themselves or others.

Why people have to riot in her defense is beyond me. Some people think she was only arrested because she is Haredi - they are calling it a modern day blood libel. This is despite the video footage showing what she did (though from what I understand there is room to interpret it differently), and testimony from the doctors. I am not saying the video means she is guilty - I am just saying the video means it is unlikely to be a blood libel, and unlikely to be "just because she is haredi". In the eyes of the law, they have evidence of her abusing and starving her child. Prove them wrong, get them to let the mother out on bail into medical care, whatever legal means are at their disposal, but riots?

Monday night, the night this all began, I was driving back from an engagement party in Bnei Brak. On the radio was Yisrael Eichler talking about the situation and the riots on her behalf. Eichler, who usually will defend the haredim 100% and just about always claims the secular do what they do just with pure intent to hurt the haredim, did not understand the riots. His big question was what this has to do with him - if she is sick and hurt her kid, why do we have to protest on her behalf, if on the other hand she is innocent and it is prely anti-haredism, then it is understandable. But which is it? Being that the actual story did not seem to lean obviously to saying it was anti-haredism, Eichler remained unclear in whether or not he should support the rioting.

So Eichler brought on to his show Shmuel Chaim Peppenheim. The "spokesperson" for the Eida, the guy who regularly defends haredi rioting, the guy who can easily clear things up and prove that it is all anti-haredism and there is nothing of substance to the arrest.

Peppenheim spoke, describing hos it is a false arrest, she is such a devoted mother, she would never do this, it is all anti-haredism, etc. yet he had nothing solid to say, and no explanation for her actions.

Eichler asked a few times what this has to do with us and why is rioting on her behalf ok. Even if the response of the police to arrest her was exaggerated and perhaps they should have taken her to a mental facility or somewhere she would get care and be watched, that is not a reason for rioting. Peppenheim had nothing clear to say other than his basic claims that it is all anti-haredism, and he had nothing clear in his words to explain and show that that was really so.

Peppenheim ws very unconvincing, and even Eichler was unconvinced and closed off the interview still asking his main question.

Furthermore, if she or the kid were so sick, if the doctors are making false claims, why have the great haredi medical askanim not been brought in to tell us what really happened or could have happened or should have happened? Fort even the most minor of surgeries, almost every haredi person will call the organizations of either Rav Benny Fisher, Rav Elimelech Firer or others to ask and get clarity on what should be done. We have done so on a number of occasions. Why were these haredi experts not brought in in this situation to defend the mother?

And even if the "Eida" claims are 100% correct, that she should not have been arrested but at most taken to medical care but not put in jail with murderers and dangerous people, why does that give anyone a right to riot and destroy jerusalem? Take legal means to get her out. It can't be that hard to get her out under medical care and observation, even if it means being kept away from the kids for a while.

Why must they riot over every little thing they don't like? Why must we all look bad because of them?