'Immodest' haredi bookstore vandalized
Mea Shearim shop's windows smashed with hammer in middle of night after owner refuses to give in to extremist faction's modesty demands
The windows of a modern [Orthodox] bookstore in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem were smashed last week by two masked people. Security camera's documented the two approaching the shop and damaging it. According to one of the store managers, one of the assailants watched his friend as he shattered the window with an emergency hammer, which was likely stolen from an Egged bus. The Yedioth Jerusalem weekly reported recently of ongoing attacks against haredi shop owners refusing to obey the modesty demands of an extremist faction. This isn't the first time the "Or Hachaim" store has been vandalized, and its owners are considering replacing the doors and windows from glass ones to steel ones. "We believe the police are not doing enough about this," says one of the store workers. "After the incident a patrol car arrived, but didn't even wait for me to come. They left the security guard a form to fill out a complaint and left." The bookstore chain plans to turn to a lawyer in a bid to launch legal proceedings against the police's "helplessness and idleness." "We are being abandoned," says one of the store managers. The police said in response, "An investigation has been launched. In addition, we are conducting extensive intelligence activity, which will soon bear fruit."
This article appears to have been written before police arrested one of the ringleaders of the Sicariim, the haredi thugs who are attempting to extort the Or Hachaim bookstore's owners and who have extorted other business owners in the Mea Shearim and Geulah neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
But then again, the Jerusalem Post's report earlier this week that a ringleader had been arrested may have been incorrect.
The Sicariim want Or Hachaim to stop selling English language books and to stop selling books about Orthodox Zionism or books written by Orthodox Zionists.
They also want Or Hachaim to post modesty signs and bar all tourists from the store.
Or Hachaim is owned and run by Orthodox Jews and only sells books by Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox authors.
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/fail...
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,73...
