September 26, 2006

Follow Up: Jerusalem Jews Up in Arms Over Shofar Incident

Police: The shofar-blower we stopped at the 'small Western Wall' area had already completed his prayers. Eye-witnesses: A pure lie; the police dragged him away in the middle of his prayers.

As reported here yesterday, 20-year-old Eliyahu Kleiman was in the middle of blowing the shofar during the silent Amidah prayer, in accordance with Sephardic custom, when several policemen arrived, took his shofar, and began dragging him away. They also "brutally tore off the prayer-shawls of the other worshippers," according to one of the participants in the service, "and started pushing and beating them."

The police response to the events of Rosh HaShanah at the Kotel HaKatan (Small Wall, pictured above) in the Old City of Jerusalem is: They didn't happen.

Jerusalem Police spokesman Shmulik Ben-Ruby told Arutz-7 that the shofar-blower was not in the middle of prayers and "had already blown long enough" when he was ordered to stop. When confronted with the fact that many eye-witnesses say he was clearly in the middle of prayers when he was stopped and dragged away, Ben-Ruby insisted that his version was the correct one - but agreed to "check again."

Read the reast of the Booshah HERE

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