Monday, January 29, 2007

Body-snatchers triumph

The Hornet, a fellow blogger, draws attention to a Jerusalem Post article today about how the ultra-orthodox Jews of Beit Shamesh defied police and made off with a corpse in order to prevent a full investigation into the death of a middleaged woman who had collapsed on the street. She reportedly was an attendant for ritual bathers and her devout neighbors rallied so that her body would not be "defiled" by an official autopsy.
Intense negotiations resulted in a consultation with her physicians, who suggested a heart condition was the likely cause of death, but no one knows for sure whether foul play is a factor in her death. Advocates of CT and MRI scans suggest that knifeless 'forensic radiology' might be an acceptable substitute for standard autopsy if it were to get a Rabbinical approval. Fatal mysteries should not be left to guesswork. This is a workaday example of the clash of cultures in Jerusalem when it comes to observing the "Rule of Law".

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was it death by natural causes or murder most foul in the bath-house? Suggest Izzy Bee do undercover detective work in the steamy bath-house.
Red H.

Anonymous said...

There were three arrests when 300 or so enraged Haradim swarmed into the field where doctors and cops were mulling over the lady's dead body.
They snatched the corpse, and in the confusion of flapping hats and skirts, managed to hide it in a synagogue.
Autopsy, schmautopsy...but what if she was a victim?
Maybe she learned something from gossiping women in the Mikve where she worked. Her secret has been buried.