Mother is accused of starving her child !

For four days, Jerusalem has been rocked by riots, with 18 police officers injured, after the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman who authorities claimed was starving her child.

The arrest was prompted by hospital cameras that filmed the woman removing her three-year-old’s feeding tube. Doctors suggest that she may be suffering from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a psychiatric condition in which the person harms or abuses somebody close to draw attention to themselves.

Rabbinic authorities have refuted the doctors’ theory, and the resulting disagreement has upset the fragile balance between the city’s secular and religious Jews — already inflamed after the election of a new secular mayor.

Within hours of the arrest, leaflets began to pass through Jerusalem’s close-knit religious community claiming that police had singled out the woman because she was religious and that the hospital had been treating the child for cancer. Women were seen sobbing over flyers stating that hospital workers were attempting to “snatch” babies.

“We don’t have weapons, we don’t have tanks, we don’t have policemen or jails,” Shmuel Pappenheim, a spokesman for the protesters, said. “But we are sending in our army to save a family, to save a Jewish mother who is raising five children with love and warmth.”
Tensions between city officials and Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Jews, who make up nearly a third of the city, have run high since Nir Barkat won the mayoral election in November.The man he defeated had been sympathetic to the ultra-Orthodox population.

Mr Barkat has taken several decisions that are unpopular with the ultra-Orthodox population, including opening a municipal car park for tourists who visit the city on the Sabbath. The unveiling of the lot this month prompted thousands of protesters to take to the streets and pelt vehicles with rocks.
Aharon Franco, the Jerusalem district police chief, attacked the ultra-Orthodox leadership for failing to quell the rioters.
“There is not one sane voice within the community that will rise up and cry out against this phenomenon,” Mr Franco said. “They have rabbis, they have a leadership, but I haven’t heard any of them speak out.”
Tensions between devout and secular Jews have been simmering for decades, especially in Jerusalem.
Israeli television today continued to broadcast images of religious youths — mostly thin and pale, more acquainted as they are with hours of religious study and debate in seminars than the tough ways of the street — nervously crowding Jerusalem’s street corners.
Nevertheless, there was some hope last night that a compromise might have been reached to avoid further violence before the Sabbath tomorrow.
In court yesterday, a judge agreed to release the mother of the toddler into the custody of a rabbi, on condition that she undergoes psychiatric evaluation and pays bail of 400,000 shekels (£63,000).

Source: The Times