http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1032853.html
Police fail to stop Ultra-Orthodox 'modesty patrols'
By Yair Ettinger
Tags: ultra-Orthodox, Israel News
The young woman exudes strength and independence. But she bears the sign
of a
head fracture and scars on her face. One night, a few months ago, men
broke
into her apartment through the front door. They beat her up and humiliated
her, knocking her head against the floor. They threatened to tear gas her
if
she tried to interfere with their rummaging through her possessions. And
they
left her bleeding on the floor.
To whom could she go for help? Her family turned its back on her when she
chose to divorce her ultra-Orthodox husband; her children were taken away
from her; and the neighbors in her building cold shoulder her. Now it
transpires that the authorities can't help either. The investigation that
began with a great deal of media fuss, has ended in failure. That, of
course,
took place far from the public eye.
Elhanan Buzaglo is currently being tried in a Jerusalem court. The state
prosecution describes him as "a fist for hire" and he is charged with
assaulting the complainant, Michal (whose full name is withheld) on June 1
of
this year. The other attackers and those believed to have sent them were
questioned and released. Details of the investigation that reached Haaretz
reveal how it happened that Buzaglo alone faces indictment.
The basic premise
The police believe that an organization known as "the modesty patrols" is
responsible for a series of violent attacks over several years, but the
authorities have not been able to bring them to justice. This time seemed
to
be different. The opening of the indictment against Buzaglo states that
"the
accused acted on behalf of an organization that calls itself The Modesty
Patrols and that operates in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Mea She'arim
and
Geula... Among other things, the organization, in order to achieve its
goals,
uses threats and violence and commits other violations of the law."
On June 1, Buzaglo and about six other men allegedly broke into the home
of
Michal, a formerly ultra-Orthodox woman. They brutally assaulted her and
questioned her about supposed relation****ps with married men. The
assailants
stole two telephones from her home "to check the names of those who call
her"
and left after threatening to murder her if she did not leave the
neighborhood within 72 hours. She now lives in Jerusalem's Ma'alot Dafna
neighborhood.
Buzaglo, 29, grew up in an ultra-Orthodox environment. Over the years he
has
been convicted of a number of offenses. He was arrested in July after his
fingerprints were found in Michal's apartment. At first, he refused to
talk
but later started speaking, but nothing he told his interrogators led to a
breakthrough in the investigation.
The police had no difficulty connecting Buzaglo with Binyamin Meirowitz, a
Gerrer Hasid who is known in Jerusalem to be connected unofficially with
"the
committee for the purity of our camp." This is a veteran ultra-Orthodox
organization which, in addition to its overt activities on matters of
modesty, is said to have been active over the years in "enforcing the law"
against pedophiles in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and against
ultra-Orthodox
men involved in forbidden romantic affairs. Among his other activities,
Meirowitz owns the Ne'eman printing press, where Buzaglo worked, posting
public notices.
The breakthrough in the investigation came on August 5, when Buzaglo asked
to
go out into the yard, accompanied by investigator Ronen Mizrahi. He did
not
speak in the interrogation room for fear of being secretly recorded. He
asked
about a possible deal and asked to telephone Rabbi Shmuel Zafrani, the
secretary of the former chief rabbi, Mordechai Eliahu, to check whether he
would be considered as violating din moser (the religious prohibition
against
revealing information about a Jew to non-Jewish authorities) should he
spill
the beans.
The investigator noted in a memorandum that Zafrani explained the
religious
precept to Buzaglo and said that "it was permissible for him to talk about
all the people who had carried out offenses of assault and other offenses
against other people." After that, Buzaglo was shown photographs of the
wounded Michal, and he said: "I did not beat her. It is possible that one
of
the others kicked her." Later he also mentioned the name of the person who
employed him, Meirowitz, as having been present in the apartment, but the
information provided was of limited value.
The investigator noted in the memorandum, "Because of a technical fault
with
the recording equipment, the contents of the investigation were not
recorded."
The following day, Buzaglo continued to speak and this time, he
specifically
mentioned that Meirowitz had initiated the assault. He asked whether he
could
get the status of state witness in return for incriminating the members of
the "patrols." In his memorandum, the investigator wrote that Buzaglo had
spoken of "a great number of incidents, between 15 and 20 incidents, in
which
they had dealt with people. He had received $2,000 for every job. He said
he
would have to think it over very carefully whether he wanted to make such
a
deal and if he decided to go ahead with it, he would tell us about all the
people and all the cases."
Buzaglo said that another five men were involved in the attack on Michal,
including a youth called Cahane "about whom he does not know full details
but
he can show us the house where they live in Meah She'arim." He later said
there were actions that he refused to take upon himself. "According to
him,
he was involved in dozens of incidents and also knows about other
incidents
that he was not involved in," the investigator noted, but this time, too,
the
memorandum ended with the remark that it had not been possible to record
Buzaglo.
Nevertheless, in August the police arrested Meirowitz and also summoned
Rabbi
Yitzhak Safranovich, who heads the committee for the purity of our camp.
At
the same time, two other youths who the police believed were connected
with
the "patrols" were arrested.
Neighborhood demonstrations
The arrests and the investigation of the rabbi led to a wave of
demonstrations in Mea She'arim and to demands that they be released. Those
being held were released within days while tempers cooled, but the police
claimed there was no significance to the move, and that the prosecution
was
planning to submit indictments against all of them. Only now, after the
Haaretz investigation, does it transpire that no one other than Buzaglo is
going to be indicted, for "lack of evidence."
"It is very strange," says a legal source connected to the case. "We all
know
what the modesty patrols are, but here they take a Moroccan and place all
the
blame on him. It is clear that Buzaglo is on the fringe of the fringe in
this
case."
The Jerusalem District police said in response that "following the
assault, a
number of suspects were interrogated. The investigation against them was
exhausted but when insufficient evidence was found against them in order
to
bring them to trial, it was decided to submit an indictment against the
main
suspect." One of the reasons for the failure of the investigation, the
police
admit, was "a technical fault with the recording device."
Meanwhile Buzaglo has changed his story and found a new explanation for
the
fingerprint found in Michal's apartment. He says he was having an affair
with
her and he knows nothing about the assault. During one discussion over
extending his remand, he asked that his wife leave the courtroom before
admitting to the supposed affair. Police arranged a confrontation between
him
and Michal, and she claimed that she had never seen him before. When the
investigator asked him whether he was prepared to lie by giving a bad name
to
a young woman he did not know, Buzaglo merely recited psalms in a
monotonous
voice. Since that moment, everything that he related about the modesty
patrols has been forgotten.
Thus Michal was abandoned for a second time. Buzaglo's story now not only
cleanses him of guilt but also supposedly backs the claim that the victim
was
having affairs with married men. Until a few days ago, Michal was not
aware
that the investigation was completed.
"From time to time, the police call me and tell me that the investigation
is
proceeding," she says. "That is annoying. People can do whatever is in
their
head, take the law into their hands, but the law itself is not put in
motion.
I can do nothing. I am just trying to survive."
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