Dozens of ultra-Orthodox extremists targeted Shas lawmaker Yoav Ben-Tzur, attacking his car in Jerusalem on Saturday night. The crowd smashed the car’s windows and threw garbage bags at the vehicle after he left a weekly Torah lecture taught by Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, a former Sephardi chief rabbi and senior Shas religious authority.
Ben-Tzur was unharmed and was escorted out by police officers who arrived at the scene. Police said that “forces are continuing to search for and locate the suspects.”
Shas condemned the incident, saying it was “carried out by a handful of rioters,” adding, “Such acts of violence, which amount to a desecration of God’s name, are not the way of the Torah and do not represent any God-fearing public.”
ח”כ יואב בן צור מש”ס מחולץ הערב עם רכבו מרחוב אדוניהו הכהן בירושלים לאחר זעם על חוק הגיוס
Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Boaz Bismuth also condemned the incident, calling it “a serious crossing of a line and a blatant attempt to intimidate elected officials.” He said that “sensitive issues like conscription will be discussed where they should be – through serious dialogue, with careful consideration and democratic decisions. Not in the streets and not under threats from extremists.”