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Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Far-right party leader ‘shocked and ashamed’ by mobbing of Arab man
The far-right leader of the Religious Zionism party Bezalel Smotrich expresses horror at the attack on an Arab man in Bat Yam.
“I just viewed a clip I can’t share here of Jews mobbing an innocent Arab passerby and I am shocked and ashamed to the bottom of my soul,” he tweets. “We are in difficult days, under attack, frustrated… but damn it, how can Jews be so cruel?! Terrible.”
Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich leads a faction meeting at the Knesset on May 3, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Smotrich has long been accused of stoking racial and religious tensions.
He recently said that Arabs are citizens of Israel, “for now at least.”
