Yesterday, for the first time in like three years, we happened to be driving through Bnei Brak.

We were on the way to visit some people in Netanya, and we detoured to Petach Tikva first, so I could get an ergonomic mouse and hopefully avoid carpal tunnel syndrome.

We left Petach Tikva, headed down Jabotinski – which runs through Petach Tikva, Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak – in the direction of Route 2.

Suddenly, stand-still traffic.

Bnei Brak is always a nightmare to drive around, unless it’s 3am (and even then…) and honestly? Most of Israel is a nightmare to drive around at the moment. There are hundreds, literally, of cranes everywhere, building everything, roads getting dug up all over the place, roadworks everywhere you turn.

I have no idea who is paying for all this…

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Point is, we’re in the car, in stand-still traffic, just by Hagai Street, where it joins Jabotinski.

We start hearing a bunch of sirens. Then some ambulances show up. Then a crowd starts to gather, and it looks like someone is pulling metal fences across the end of the road.

My husband turned to me and said, this is something ‘giyus’ related.

He had nevua.

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Meanwhile, a bunch of those really mean looking cops started crossing the road in front of us – you know, the ones who wear black, and have grey helmets, and always but always some sort of ‘darth vader’ black thing covering most of their faces.

They looked really scary.

I turned to my husband and said, I’m pleased I’m not being chased by those guys, they look like psychos.

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Of course, they were.

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This morning, I went to the Tomer Devorah blog – and that’s when I read the story about what happened on Hagai Street yesterday.

Then, I saw videos of a group of our dear border police violently attacking a frum woman who made the mistake of trying to get past them, to walk down the street.

They pushed her, she pushed back – and instantly was surrounded by 10 border police, including at least six men, some of whom decided to try and pull off her wig – before arresting her, shamefully, and marching her down the street.

התקיפה בבני ברק ראויה לכל גינוי, אבל היי – תראו את זה: מג”בניקים מכים באלימות אשה חרדית, עוברת אורח תמימה, בבני ברק ומושכים בפאה שלה. האם נשמע גם כעת את גל הגינויים?
@itamarbengvir pic.twitter.com/e4guoqA6oQ

— מנדי ריזל (@mendi_rizel) February 15, 2026

(BTW – I wanted to post up other videos to show you what really happened in Bnei Brak, but they have already started cleansing the web of them. One X account deleted, the main videos on the YWN now buried so you can’t find them easily. But here’s the link:)

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I’d love to tell you that I’m shocked, but I’m actually really not.

I was shocked a few years ago, when the police started riding their massive black Shire horses directly into a crowd of men, women and very small children in strollers, who were waiting outside the Jerusalem District Court where the latest miscarriage of justice involving the Rav was occurring.

I was also pretty shocked when the Yassamnikim showed up in Musrara at dawn, back in February 2020, to violently arrest the Rav during the morning prayers. Like this:

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(It’s really interesting, that YWN have taken down the video that accompanied this, where you can see exactly how brutal the police were behaving when they arrested the Rav. Now, all we have is the YWN write up, dictated by…. who exactly? Answers on a postcode.)

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That shocked me.

Now, I’m not shocked about how our ‘security forces’ behave.

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I’m old enough to remember the days, perhaps the daydream, when cops were supposed to help solve real crimes and protect the public.

These days, all the crims, pedos, corrupt ‘leaders’ – they all get a free pass, because they own the police. Or at least, that’s how it seems.

And in the meantime, the cops focus on…. Beating up frum Jews.

At least, here in Israel.

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BH, more of us will wake up, realise that what we saw by the Rav 12 years ago, and 10 years ago, and 7 years ago, and what we are seeing today – all the miscarriages of justice, and the police brutality, and the corruption of the judicial process for political ends – it was always there.

Just now, in our times, it’s finally coming out of the shadows enough that a growing number of people can recognise it for what it is, and understand that the State seems to be waging a war, mamash, against it’s religious residents.

And especially, the leaders that can galvanise the religious community to continue to stick to the path of Torah and mitzvot.

And especially even more, the leaders who can bring people who are currently far away from that path, much, much closer to walking it.

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BTW – I would say AT LEAST 95% of the ‘commentators’ on YWN, and other sites, who are ‘pro-beating up chareidim’ are actually working for the State to try to influence public opinion in the frum world.

Most people understand what is really going on here, so they have to add these ‘influencers’ in, to try and dilute the clarity.

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UPDATE:

Two useful posts, also sourced via Tomer Devorah, that clarify what sparked all this off: 2 female soldiers sent around Bnei Brak with recruitment leaflets for the army…

https://www.jfeed.com/news-israel/bnei-brak-riots-idf-police-clash

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Me personally?

I am anti-violence, and anti-demonstrations.

These are both the weapons of ‘Esav’, and we’d do much, much better if we stopped rising to the bait, and instead focussed on the ‘voice of Yaakov’, to solve more of our issues.

That’s not always easy to do in practise, and sometimes, the brutality is so bad, people literally have to respond in some way just to try to protect themselves.

But the better way, whenever possible, is just to walk away and ignore them.

If they can’t get their propaganda headlines, they’ll stop trying to ‘create’ them.