Finally Jerusalem Muncipality Suing the "Light Train Hooligans and extortionists"

The Jerusalem Municipality and the company carrying out the railway work are demanding NIS 5 million from demonstrators who allegedly rioted. 

For almost two years now, demonstrations have been held on a regular basis against the construction of the light rail on Bar-Ilan Street in Jerusalem. Yesterday, the Jerusalem Municipality and Moriah, which is responsible for the work, filed huge lawsuits against 17 Haredim who they claim were the leaders of the demonstrators.

From each demonstrator, the municipality and the works company, demand NIS 300,000. In total, the lawsuit demands five million shekels from all the demonstrators against whom the lawsuit was filed together. 

To date, a total of 23 lawsuits have been filed.  These lawsuits are against protesters who blocked roads and tractors and but caused no damage. Moriah hopes this might stop the protesters.

"The malicious motives, which underlie the activities of this 'group of rioters,' cannot be understood, except that the defendants and their friends are acting out of hooliganism and extortion motives, all this for personal and hidden favors for the group's leaders," the lawsuit states, among other things.

"In this context, the rioters use the method of causing damage and complete destruction of fences, construction equipment, tools and all that entails. The rioters and the defendant gather along the route of the works for countless hours, adjacent to the work tools and work vehicles operated on behalf of the plaintiff, and even crawl under them, all with the clear aim of damaging the equipment, stopping the work and delaying them as much as possible."

In addition, the State Attorney's Office filed an indictment yesterday against another protester, a resident of Ashdod, at the age of 20, after he broke into the construction site of the light rail line in Jerusalem about a week ago.

According to the indictment, while mass demonstrations were taking place near the site of the work for the development of the light rail line, the accused entered the work site together with others and settled there in order to prevent further development work. The accused, who was holding a tallit and tefillin, cigarettes and a holy book in case he was arrested, did not leave the area despite repeated calls from the police officers to evacuate the area. The accused even smoked a cigarette and looked at a book he had brought with him, while sitting in the morning ignoring the calls of the police officers. After some time, when the pleas of the officers did not help, the accused was forcibly evicted from the work site by police officers and arrested.

The indictment charges the defendants with committing offenses of trespass in order to commit an offense and interfering with a police officer in the performance of his duties.