For 100 years, if not more, a small poultry slaughterhouse operated peacefully in Mea She'arim in Jerusalem. Now that its operator since 2006 is being sent to prison, it may well be shut down for good. With its demise, one of the most prominent symbols of this ancient ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, established in 1874, could be erased.
In my youth, I studied in Mea She'arim, and I still vividly remember the slaughterhouse. It's a spectacle I'll never forget, the crates of cackling chickens strewn along the broad, steep alleyway in the center of the neighborhood. The slaughterhouse was located in the building behind, on the open first floor, which looked like a hallway. Inside, butchers wearing blue gowns were busily running around. The slaughtered chickens were thrown into conical aluminum cans, waiting for their turn at the noisy feather-plucking machines, which were operated by Arabs. On the side of the road, elderly women and children stood by ready to wrap the freshly slaughtered poultry in fabric bags.
The trouble started in July 2011, when the authorities ordered the closure of the slaughterhouse, which had been allegedly operating without a license while evading tax payments. On July 13 of that year, a large Border Police force entered the closed ultra-Orthodox militant neighborhood in armored jeeps to carry out the shutdown order. The police expected some protest on the part of the residents, but failed to foresee the overwhelming opposition organized by locals. The police were pelted with stones and iron bars, and their way was blocked by garbage bins set on fire and oil spilled on the road. Six officers were injured in the clashes, but the police managed to carry out the mission, confiscating equipment and computers and taking boxes full of documents from the slaughterhouse. Five of the rioters were detained.
Among the detainees was manager Yoelish Kraus. By then, 43-year-old Kraus, a father of 16, had already made a name for himself as an ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist extremist activist. Kraus claimed that he had never taken a penny from the state and had never benefited from social security. He has never been out of the country and has never held a bank account or any official ID document.
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