Chaos and pushings in Tel Aviv
(ILTV News)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, accused protesters of physically pushing Rabbi Leo Dee in Tel Aviv, because he was wearing a Jewish prayer Shawl. Dee said he was not pushed. "There is no limit to the hate and madness," Netanyahu said after members of his coalition made the same accusations. Dee said he was not pushed.
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The rabbi, who had lost his wife and two daughters in a terror attack earlier this year, arrived at the head of a group of settlers to pray at the city's Dizengoff square where on Yom Kippur, protesters clashed with members of a right-wing and religious group who insisted on a segregated prayer in contradiction of a law forbidding segregation in the public sphere.
In an interview, Dee said there were only a number of protesters who represent a minority which is like the terrorists, loud and impactful. When given the chance to retract his words comparing the protesters to terrorists, the rabbi declined.
He said he had come to Tel Aviv to demonstrate against the events on the eve of Yom Kippur and to advance freedom of religion. "We have human rights, and part of that is that we can pray anywhere we like and even if we want to pray separately with a partition, we can do that too," Dee said. "This prayer was for religious freedom in Tel Aviv. He (the mayor) probably wants to turn Tel Aviv into Soviet Russia where religion is the state and everyone is the same," he said.
Rabbi Leo Dee: 'We came here to support the people of Tel Aviv'
(ILTV News)
However, Dee's public prayer in Tel Aviv was for the most part uneventful, which did not stop the prime minister from making his comments. The man whose picture was spread on social media by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir earlier in the day, and accused of assaulting Dee, said he was speaking with a woman who was with the rabbi's group when Dee intervened in the conversation and once he realized who he was, he quickly tried to leave, out of respect for him after the tragic loss of his wife and daughters.
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A group of settlers led by Rabbi Leo Dee holds segregated prayers in Tel Aviv
(Photo: Moti Kimchi)
After the religious group behind the public prayers, Rosh Yehudi, appealed to the Jerusalem District Court on Wednesday, to overturn the decision of the Tel Aviv Municipality to cancel events scheduled for the holiday of Sukkot, after the group violated the law on Yom Kippur, the court refused to intervene and urged all parties to come to an understanding, "in the spirit of the holiday."