JERUSALEM -- Israeli officials said they would enforce abatement measures against increasingly aggressive panhandlers at Jerusalem's Western Wall.
In 2005, Israeli Attorney General Menahem Mazuz told Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch to act against beggars employing violent means of panhandling.
The ruling took effect Thursday to deter beggars from clogging the way to the Western Wall and duping visitors into paying admission to the holy site, the Jerusalem Post reported Thursday.
"They really went overboard and became brutal," Rabinovitch said in the Post. "It pains me that we have come to this."
Visitors to the Western Wall have complained for years that it is nearly impossible to approach the site without beggars confronting them, often assaulting visitors for contributing too little.
A spokesmen for the police department said they would remove beggars from the holy site.
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