A few interesting news items from Bet Shemesh:

1. The Bet Shemesh city council voted to reject splitting the city.

Mayor Abubtol points to 10-7 vote to show that a majority of Bet Shemesh wants to stay united as one city and only a minority want the city split.

I happen to be against a split, but I find this news item amusing. Using a vote of an automatic majority in city council of Haredi council members as proof that the city should not be split is funny, and even cynical..
source: Kikar

Anyways, on an issue that will be decided only in the Knesset, I am not sure this vote actually means anything.

2. It seems the attack last week by a few extremist thugs on the soldier visiting Bet Shemesh who stopped to daven in the shteiblach was the straw that broke the camels back/

Now, finally, it seems the Haredi community has decided to fight back and hound the extremists. Who knows - if this keeps up, maybe they'll either decide to lay low or maybe they'll eventually move out to somewhere else that is more extremist-friendly.

ShemeshNet reports that Haredim are spreading the pictures of over 20 members of the extremist group around, using Whatsapp and Facebook. They are spreading what they call the black list of terrorists who are blackening the face of the Haredi community.

It seems the purpose of this is to spread their pictures around so people will know not to donate money to them when they go around collecting.

One of the people behind it said that such people have to pay the price , and the police is not deterring them, so we will have to deter them.

(shemeshnet blurred their faces. I assume to avoid any possibility of lawsuit)

3. A writer on the Haredi website "Charedim10" has published a list of troubling and even criminal incidents the extremists have caused and been involved in, and calls on the rabbonim to no longer be quiet.

See the list

Interestingly, he concludes the list with his staement/call to the public and rabbonim, saying the haredi community knows very well how to fight against anything in its way. The rabbonim regularly put out letters, start programs (like chaver), etc. Yet against this damage we remain quiet - against verbal and physical violence, against attacking the gedolim, against education to thievery, things that happen daily in the neighborhood in front of watching children, by people dressed as haredim who call themselves people who avenge Gods vengeance - against them the rabbonim dont take a stand, dont put out letters against them, and the askanim remain quiet as if nothing happened.. 

People are finally starting to see the damage done by these people to the Haredi community itself, as much or more than to the general community. It is about time, and I hope it is not just a momentary revelation..

The Haredi community working against these thugs can do a far better job at curtailing their efforts than the police or general public ever would be able to..

4. and in other news, police arrested two people for growing 700 marijuana plants.. in the fields of Bet Shemesh.

Breitbart and the Cannabis Magazine report on the arrest.

The plants were all being grown in pots near a small river, and water was being stolen from a pipe from the National Water Carrier Mekorot.

Cannabis Magazine adds a funny point saying that two years ago the City of Bet Shemesh renamed a neighborhood (Heftziba) to Kneh Bosem, which they say caused people to complain. Kneh Bosem is commonly translated to "marijuana".

This may give us some new insight into why, at times, there seems to be so much crazy in Bet Shemesh...