Chanting, "The country demands justice for the children" and other slogans, thousands of Israelis protested at some 25 locations around the country on Sunday to demand state oversight of daycare centers, amid outrage over a case in which a private kindergarten teacher systematically abused children under her care.
Roads were blocked in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as furious parents waved signs reading "Mother, Father, save me" and "Don't abandon our children," just days after hidden camera footage was released of Rosh Haayin kindergarten caregiver Carmel Mauda, 25, abusing children.
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Nearly 10,000 people took part in the Tel Aviv protest.
Parents of the children and their supporters are demanding child care oversight laws be strengthened and more severely enforced, and that private daycare be brought under the jurisdiction of the Education Ministry. Subsidized public daycare in the form of preschool is currently available to children from the age of three.
Charges against Mauda, who ran the Baby Love daycare center, accuse her of violence against 11 children, ranging in age from three months to three years.
If convicted, Mauda could face a minimum of 10 years in prison.
Video: Paz Bar, Newsenders
She is accused of covering children with blankets and sitting on them to prevent them from moving, forcing children to stand against a wall for hours, lifting toddlers by the arms and throwing them down, shaking babies, hitting and slapping toddlers and pulling their heads back while obstructing their breathing. In one case, she is even charged with force-feeding a child "the contents of a plate on which he had vomited."
The footage led to nationwide horror and protests outside Mauda's home and the daycare center, which went up in flames on Saturday in what is believed to have been an arson attack. Currently under arrest, Mauda was not on the premises.
Hebrew media reported that Mauda initially denied the allegations, but told investigators "I am a monster," and "I was Satan here" when presented with the video evidence.
Mauda was allegedly reported by the last of eight different employees she hired and fired in the past year. Another unnamed assistant has also been arrested.
Protests were organized in Haifa, Beersheba, Yavne and Tel Aviv, with nearly 10,000 protesters taking part in the central demonstration in Tel Aviv.
Reprinted with permission from JNS.org
