A woman from Beit Shemesh was convicted Sunday morning of child abuse and assault in incidents involving six of her children. Her husband was convicted of abuse and failing to report abuse.
The verdict signaled the beginning of the end of a case that made headlines nationwide last year.
The mother of 12 was accused of abusing her children over the course of several years. Among other things, she was accused of locking children out of the house when they disobeyed her, waking them by pouring cold water on their faces, and extinguishing a match on her son's chest after discovering that he had been playing soccer against her orders.
The mother was also accused of turning a blind eye to sexual relations between two of her children, raising questions regarding the extent to which parents are responsible for crimes committed between children in the home.
The case gained particular attention due in no small part to the mother herself – a self-styled spiritual guru who led dozens of hareidi-religious women in taking on a highly unusual mode of dress similar to the full-body coverings common in extremist Muslim countries. The mother covers her entire body, face and hands at all times, and encourages other women to do the same, earning her the nickname “Taliban mother” in the mainstream Israeli press.
The woman's attorney, Gil Dahoah, argued that his client's dress had negatively affected her chance at a fair hearing. “There was a strong sense during the trial that the mother's unusual clothes were hard for others to accept... She was treated very harshly due to her appearance,” he said.
Dahoah told the court that his client was not fit for trial and could not be held responsible for her actions.
The attorney representing the woman's children joined Dahoah in asking the court not to send her to prison. “Any punishment she gets would present another serious blow to the children,” he said. Instead, the children ask that the mother receive treatment.
Verdict as Jerusalem Case Makes Headlines
The verdict in the “Taliban mother” case was handed down as another suspected abuse case in Jerusalem made headlines and led to days of riots. A mother in the hareidi-religious Toldot Aharon sect is accused of starving her young child. Doctors say the woman suffers from a psychological disorder known as Munchausen by Proxy, which involves creating symptoms of illness in another person.
The mother was arrested last week, leading to riots in the hareidi-religious neighborhoods of Meah Shearim and Geula as hundreds of supporters protested. Protestors claimed the mother was being mistreated in prison, and many accused doctors at Hadassah Ein Karem hospital of falsely blaming the mother for her son's condition in order to cover up their own medical malpractice.
The Knesset planned a special session on Sunday to discuss the riots and the police response. Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman of the hareidi-religious United Torah Judaism party said his office would investigate the allegations against Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital.