Published 17 July 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2909
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b2909

News

Ultraorthodox Jews riot in Israel after mother arrested for Munchausen by proxy

Judy Siegel-Itzkovich

1 Jerusalem

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Hundreds of Jerusalem residents of the ultraorthodox Mea Shearim quarter took to the streets and demonstrated after a mother was arrested. She is accused of starving and abusing her three and a half year old boy for two years as a result of fabricated or induced illness, the psychiatric disorder Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy. A few dozen people were arrested. The parents are members of a concentrated extremist Hasidic sect.

Some residents burned dustbins, threw rocks at policemen and passersby, and smashed equipment in a welfare office. The violence surged after a court "gag order" was cancelled, allowing the press to publish the story (but not of the family name so the children would not be identified). In reaction to the violence, Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat, ordered the temporary closure of the neighbourhood’s welfare offices.

Doctors at Jerusalem’s Hadassah University Medical Center are trying to nurse the boy back to . . . [Full text of this article]


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