Yet another example of how religious fanaticism turns black into white and ends up inspiring violence against those who disagree:

—– Jerusalem Riots Over Suspected Child Abuse Case Continue (MonstersAndCritics.com/DPA; July 16)

Members of Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community attacked government ministries and police officers in Jerusalem on Thursday, the third day of violent protests against the arrest of one of their community suspected of starving her child.

By mid-afternoon, at least 10 people had been lightly injured in the riots, according to reports.

Demonstrators hurled rocks at the Education Ministry, pelted police with stones, overturned garbage dumpsters, damaged road signs, and forced police to evacuate welfare workers from an office in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood.

Some 15 people also protested outside the Jerusalem hospital where the child at the centre of the affair is being treated.

Jerusalem municipal officials estimated the damage caused by the three days of rioting as close to 200,000 Israeli shekels (around 51,000 dollars).

Mayor Nir Barkat has ordered the municipality to suspend all services to two ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods, citing fears for the safety of municipality employees.

The move was condemned by ultra-Orthodox city leaders as collective punishment on all ultra-Orthodox living in those neighbourhoods, including those not involved in the rioting.

The rioting broke out in the city’s religious neighbourhoods after authorities announced the woman’s arrest on Tuesday. Members of the city’s ultra-Orthodox community, to which the woman belongs, protested her detention by setting fire to garbage containers and throwing stones.

The demonstrations continued unabated Wednesday and even spread to the nearby city of Beit Shemesh, which also houses a significant ultra-Orthodox population.

Police said Thursday morning that 26 rioters had been arrested overnight.

Doctors allege the ultra-Orthodox woman, in her 30s, who is pregnant and a mother of four other children, suffers from Muenchhausen Syndrome by Proxy, a disorder whereby a person deliberately causes or fakes the illness of someone, usually to get the attention of doctors.

The family have denied the accusation of child abuse and their spokesman said Thursday that the child was suffering from cancer, and that his skeletal appearance was the effect of chemotherapy treatments.

Doctors, however, rejected this claim, saying the child’s health has improved and he has begun to put on weight since he was taken into care.

Yair Birenbaum, deputy director of the hospital in which the boy is being treated, told Israel Radio Thursday afternoon that medical team had saved the toddler’s life. He said he believed the boy could be discharged in a few weeks.

The 3-year-old, whose weight had dropped to some seven kilograms, about half the average for boys his age, had been in and out of hospital for the past 18 months.

Doctors and social workers began suspecting Muenchausen Syndrome when a series of medical checks found nothing wrong.

Police on Thursday rejected a request that the woman be released into house arrest, saying that to do so could place her four other children in danger.

But the woman’s lawyer charged that she is not receiving the medical care she needs.

‘A pregnant woman in her fifth month with a history of four miscarriages who feels pain in her womb and asks for medical care and doesn’t get it and who is constantly being interrogated – I think, in this situation, this could be bad for her health,’ attorney David Halevy told Israel Radio.

The ultra-Orthodox rioting in Jerusalem follows weeks of violent tension sparked by the city’s decision to open a municipal parking lot on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath, when Jews are forbidden by religious law from doing any work, conducting commercial transactions, and even driving.

Even though the city announced the parking lot would not charge money, and would be operated on Saturday’s by a non-Jew, the ultra- Orthodox were were not appeased, and rioting broke out over successive weekends.

—– Court Bid To End Jerusalem Riots (The BBC; July 17)

An ultra-orthodox woman whose arrest on suspicion of starving her child sparked violent protests is to be freed into the custody of a Jerusalem rabbi.

Agreement to the move by a court and religious leaders aims to end clashes between orthodox Jews and police.

The detention of the woman, said to suffer from mental illness, had enraged the orthodox community.

But they are also angry at what they see as continuing interference by Israeli authorities in their community.

Some 18 police officers were injured in clashes overnight on Thursday and into Friday morning, police said.

More than 30 demonstrators were arrested and a further 20 held for questioning.

Dustbins were set on fire and stones hurled as protesters confronted police in two ultra-orthodox neighbourhoods, Mea Shearim and Bar-Ilan.

The area was quieter but still tense on Friday, the BBC’s Katya Adler reports.

Israeli media reported that the city’s magistrate court agreed to release the woman into the custody of a local rabbi, on a bail of 400,000 shekels ($100,000).

She is required to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and other medical tests, the Jerusalem Post reports.

The mother is accused of deliberately depriving her three-year old son of food. He is now in hospital.

A hospital spokeswoman, Yael Bossem-Levy, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying the woman had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a condition in which a person mimics or induces illness in another.

“We don’t have weapons, we don’t have tanks, we don’t have policemen or jails,” a spokesman for the protesters told Israeli Army radio.

“But we are sending in our army to save a family, to save a Jewish mother who is raising five children with love and warmth,” Shmuel Pappenheim said.

But these riots are not just about the arrest of a religious woman, our correspondent says.

They are the angry expression of ongoing tensions between the orthodox community, which makes up about a third of Jerusalem’s population, and the secular city mayor, she adds.

Many secular Israelis accuse the ultra-orthodox of anti-social behaviour – not just during riots.

Some see them as taking public handouts to support large families while avoiding paying taxes, dodging military service, and not even recognising the state of Israel.

Ultra-orthodox members have been protesting for several weeks over plans by the mayor to open a car park near the religiously sensitive Old City area on Saturdays, when orthodox Jews abstain from work.

AT THE SCENE:

It is quieter here today in the ultra orthodox neighbourhoods of Jerusalem, it is the eve of the Jewish Sabbath. The narrow streets are heaving with people hurrying to do their family food shopping before sundown.

Still, the situation remains tense. As if waiting for trouble, men and boys line the backstreets dressed in their traditional black and white clothes, some of which date back to the 18th Century.

Many shout at us to go away. A few throw stones.

Non-religious people are never welcome here. Most ultra-orthodox Jews prefer to shut themselves off from the modern secular world. - Katya Adler, BBC News, Jerusalem