Background: members of a Jewish synagogue in Jerusalem were attacked on November 18th. Five people were killed (as well as the two attackers).
The telecom angle:
- - - - - - - - (Material between the dashes is from the website - Mod.) - - - - - - - - - -
Haredi Synagogue Hit By Terror Attack Had Cellphone-Blocking Device, Slowing Down Police Response
A reason it took police so long to respond to the attack
- 11 minutes, by some accounts - and likely a reason the death toll was as high as it was is because haredi rabbis had installed a device in the synagogue to block cellphone transmissions. And the synagogue did not have an easily accessible public phone.
rest:
-or-
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- take note of the comments about the availibity and usage of these devices.
Note: the website [listed above] is run by someone who is focused, some might say obsessed, with pointing out the [alleged] excesses of "charedi" (loosely speaking, ultra religious) Jews. But the report itself seems factual.
And also... this is a highly emotional and political situation. Let's try to remain focused on the telecom angle.
_____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key snipped-for-privacy@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
***** Moderator's Note *****
This *is* a highly emotional situation. I'm allowing the post because it brings into sharp relief the problems caused because cellphone users are used to "always on" connectivity, but many who hold traditional views on what is and is not acceptable behavior in public places are still opposed.
It is unclear if the synagogue had a landline for emergencies in the past.
(I have moved some paragraphs around to make it easier to distinguish quoted material from original text.)
Bill Horne Moderator