Tweet
Jerusalem Post
Dec 10 2011
Meretz reaches out to Christian patriarchs
By MELANIE LIDMAN
12/10/2011 23:37
Haredi spitting at priests in Jerusalem has gotten worse in past six
months, say city councilors.
Jerusalem City Council members from the Meretz party met on Thursday
with the Armenian patriarch, to apologize for the increase in
ultra-Orthodox spitting at priests as they walk in the Old City.
According to Meir Margalit, the Meretz city councilor who holds the
east Jerusalem portfolio, the phenomenon of haredim spitting at the
ground as priests walked by has gone on for years but has gotten
considerably worse in the past six months. The issue was highlighted
in an October court case against a Greek Orthodox priest who punched a
haredi man who spat at him. The judge dismissed the case after saying
that the haredi man had provoked the priest.
`Needless to say, spitting toward the accused when he was wearing the
mantle of the church is a criminal offense,' Judge Dov Pollock said in
the October 31 ruling.
Local Meretz activists joined city councilors Laura Wharton, Pepe
Alalu and Margalit for the meeting with Armenian Patriarch Archbishop
Torkom Manoogian. Two weeks ago, the group, along with two rabbis from
Rabbis for Human Rights, held a similar meeting with Greek Orthodox
Patriarch Theophilos III.
`We went to ask forgiveness in the name of the Jewish nation and the
citizens of Jerusalem,' Margalit said on Friday.
`I grew up in Argentina during a period when there wasn't a small
amount of anti-Semitism. When I heard this, it immediately brought me
back to Argentina. How can the Jewish people be doing something that
they used to do to us not so many years ago?' Margalit asked.
Margalit said that both meetings with the church leaders had been
positive, and that Manoogian had said he believed the problem stemmed
from a lack of education in the haredi community.
Margalit said he would appeal to the haredi city councilors to ask
rabbis to denounce the practice. But he also encouraged the police to
stop it `once and for all' by using the many security cameras in the
Old City to identify and arrest the men spitting at priests.
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=248942
Dec 10 2011
Meretz reaches out to Christian patriarchs
By MELANIE LIDMAN
12/10/2011 23:37
Haredi spitting at priests in Jerusalem has gotten worse in past six
months, say city councilors.
Jerusalem City Council members from the Meretz party met on Thursday
with the Armenian patriarch, to apologize for the increase in
ultra-Orthodox spitting at priests as they walk in the Old City.
According to Meir Margalit, the Meretz city councilor who holds the
east Jerusalem portfolio, the phenomenon of haredim spitting at the
ground as priests walked by has gone on for years but has gotten
considerably worse in the past six months. The issue was highlighted
in an October court case against a Greek Orthodox priest who punched a
haredi man who spat at him. The judge dismissed the case after saying
that the haredi man had provoked the priest.
`Needless to say, spitting toward the accused when he was wearing the
mantle of the church is a criminal offense,' Judge Dov Pollock said in
the October 31 ruling.
Local Meretz activists joined city councilors Laura Wharton, Pepe
Alalu and Margalit for the meeting with Armenian Patriarch Archbishop
Torkom Manoogian. Two weeks ago, the group, along with two rabbis from
Rabbis for Human Rights, held a similar meeting with Greek Orthodox
Patriarch Theophilos III.
`We went to ask forgiveness in the name of the Jewish nation and the
citizens of Jerusalem,' Margalit said on Friday.
`I grew up in Argentina during a period when there wasn't a small
amount of anti-Semitism. When I heard this, it immediately brought me
back to Argentina. How can the Jewish people be doing something that
they used to do to us not so many years ago?' Margalit asked.
Margalit said that both meetings with the church leaders had been
positive, and that Manoogian had said he believed the problem stemmed
from a lack of education in the haredi community.
Margalit said he would appeal to the haredi city councilors to ask
rabbis to denounce the practice. But he also encouraged the police to
stop it `once and for all' by using the many security cameras in the
Old City to identify and arrest the men spitting at priests.
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=248942