Police are investigating an incident at a polling station in Netanya in which a man in a Meretz Party T-shirt rubbed tefillin on his crotch.
“Police have detained a resident of the city of Netanya for questioning on suspicion of desecrating a religious object,” the Israel Police said in a statement.
When the man arrived at the polling station, Chabad representatives were offering voters the opportunity to don tefillin. When the man was approached, he grabbed the phylacteries and started yelling, subsequently rubbing them against his crotch.
The man was wearing a Meretz T-shirt and claimed to be a supporter of the party.
In response to the incident, the party appealed to the Central Elections Committee demanding that it use its full powers to investigate the incident.
“The man is not known to any of the Meretz activists and is apparently an imposter who is trying to harm the party,” Meretz said in a statement.
Party leader Zehava Gal-On retweeted pictures of party members wearing Meretz shirts donning tefillin with the Chabad representatives.
“This is Meretz,” she wrote.
Meretz MK Michal Rosin added that she “condemns this devious behavior, which is contrary to our worldview.”
Right-wing politicians used the event to speak out against the left-leaning party.
Religious Zionism head Bezalel Smotrich said he was “shocked” by the incident and had “tears streaming down my face” over the “persecution and hatred of Judaism that this hateful government brought with it. Enough! Sanity must be restored in Israel.”
Shas leader Aryeh Deri also expressed disgust with the incident. He said “our answer will be a massive protest at the ballot box. A Jewish state!” JNS
Police are investigating an incident at a polling station in Netanya in which a man in a Meretz Party T-shirt rubbed tefillin on his crotch.
Very Toradik. Thanx for sharing. Matzav is the place to go. And yet they censor comments that they are simply too dumb and stupid to understand.
Well, that’s Meretz, rhyming with Sheretz. That’s what they are. Non-kosher creatures.
No no no. We must bend over backwards, twist ourselves into pretzels, and use wild creative imagination in order to be dan licaf zchus this lowlife dog. He’s not Frum “YET”.
Nebach
Matzav reaches yet another low
Does this need to be reported?
Did not need this piece of information.
What would one do in such an event? assuming no permanent damage was done, can we kiss the tefillin and move on? are they fit to be used or should they be buried?