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 …