Social activists on Sunday accused Health Minister Yael German (Yesh Atid) of running a protester over with her car and leaving the scene of the accident. German in a Sunday statement denied hitting the man, and Yesh Atid sources called the accusations an attack on the party’s leader, Finance Minister Yair Lapid.
As German was leaving the party’s Tel Aviv headquarters after a Saturday night faction meeting, she encountered a group of protesters opposed to planned budget cuts, who circled her car and blocked her progress. According to a statement from German’s spokesperson, police told the health minister not to get out of her car and to leave quickly.
Officers cleared the road for her, but activists claim she ran over the leg of 70-year-old Hillel Kenigsberg, who has been holding a hunger strike outside Lapid’s house for the last two weeks, and then drove off. Police said Kenigsberg intentionally pushed his foot under the moving vehicle.
“She hit him and he fell down. There were 70 witnesses who saw it,” social activist Ruth Kolion told Israel Radio Sunday, adding that German knew she had hit someone. “We called an ambulance and it arrived 20 minutes later and took him to the hospital.”
Later that night, German visited Kenigsberg in the hospital but he refused to talk to her. He was released and went home after five hours, reportedly suffering from minor bruises.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the
terms
Sources in Yesh Atid said the incident was an intentional provocation by protesters seeking to besmirch Lapid.
We can't do this work alone.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.
— Stav Levaton, military reporter
Yes, I'll join
Yes, I'll join
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You're a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
