The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court sentenced a haredi man, father of 6, to 5 months in prison, to be carried out through community service, after he cursed soldier and police.
The man, Aharon Korlandsky, 35, was accused of abusing a public servant and attacking a public servant. He was sentenced to 5 conditional months in prison, a 500 shekel fine, and 1,000 shekels in compensation to the soldier.
In the indictment it is written that Korlandsky insulted a soldier who came with his father to pray at a synagogue in the Ezrat Torah neighborhood of Jerusalem, calling him a “hardak,” [a contraction of “haredi” and the Hebrew word for “germ”] and asked him to leave the synagogue.
Several days later when being questioned by police, the accused shouted at the investigators: “Amalekites you shall not keep alive, police of Amalekites, Satan.”
A police officer at the scene asked Korlandsky to calm down and speak politely, but he got up from his seat and came towards the officer, becoming agitated and refusing to sit down. When the officer grabbed him and tried to force him to sit, Korlandsky pushed the officer into the wall, damaging it.
Judge Shapira said during the reading of the sentence that “violent incidents and acts disgracing IDF soldiers, especially those from a haredi background, are becoming more common. Authorities opposing haredi draft are waging a determined battle on a number of fronts, some of which are legitimate and legal, some of which, unfortunately, are not. Included in these are incidents of verbal abuse against soldiers in uniform, expelling them from synagogues and institutions of learning, publishing their names and those of their family members in ‘pashkevilim’ [poster announcements] including Nazi associations in order to embarrass them and damage their status in the community, violence against soldiers and mass rioting over opposition to the draft.”
“It seems that nothing will deter these authorities,” she said, emphasizing, “of course, these acts are not to be associated with the accused himself. Nevertheless, they indicate a phenomenon, its scope, and the dangers entailed to rule of law and democracy.”