An opinion piece argues that repeated footage of police violence against ultra-Orthodox protesters shows that the community should stop relying on appeals to politicians and ad hoc intermediaries, and instead launch a coordinated legal counteroffensive. The author says protests, especially road blockades, have been met with increasingly harsh police tactics, including stun grenades fired directly at demonstrators, a boot pressed onto the head of a child already out of danger, and officers tearing protesters' trousers during arrests.
The piece says these incidents are not isolated, citing multiple videos of religious protesters being dragged away humiliated and with their clothes ripped. It rejects the standard explanation that the damage is accidental and argues that the pattern reflects a broader culture of impunity. The author also says the problem begins in media and public discourse, where ultra-Orthodox people are portrayed as freeloaders, draft dodgers, or extortionists, which allegedly legitimizes physical abuse by police on the street.
Instead of the traditional ultra-Orthodox approach of sending local fixers to police stations at 2 a.m. to secure releases, the article calls for organizations modeled on groups in the national-religious camp and the Kaplan protest movement, including legal aid bodies such as Honenu, Regavim, and the Movement for Quality Government. The goal, it says, should be to place lawyers outside stations, support detainees for free, and file personal civil lawsuits against officers who use force.
The author says the point is not to rely on the courts out of faith in justice, but to use them as an effective weapon. Even if most claims are rejected, the article argues that the minority that succeed, roughly 20 percent by its calculation, would pressure police by threatening their pensions, promotions, and private finances. It concludes that only a sustained legal and financial cost to officers will stop them from using force against protesters.
