Mayors of four ultra-Orthodox towns have sent a furious letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which they said they would halt all cooperation on the planned closures in their cities over the decision to enforce new measures.
In the letter, the mayors of Bnei Brak, Elad, Beitar Illit and Immanuel claim Netanyahu “never sought our opinions, to understand the difficulties and try to push realistic initiatives to flatten the sickness curve.
“You were not attentive to us and you did not bother to ask, understand and learn what characterizes a significant cut of the Israeli population.”
Police put up roadblocks in the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Beitar Illit, on July 8, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
They said Netanyahu had “declared closure after closure on Haredi cities. They never brought true change… You’ve turned the Haredi public into Israelis’ public punching bag, without a moment’s though to the suffering of tens of thousands.”
They added that “the entire Haredi public will not forget the wrong being done to it. We will not forget who is the man who time and again signed onto turning us into disease vectors and enemies of the people.”
Discover Israel's most beloved poet
She died more than four decades ago, but Leah Goldberg remains a magnetic and enigmatic figure: Israel’s most beloved poet, a powerful woman who lived with her mother and never married, who reinvented herself from the ashes of World War I through her magical writing.
You can screen 'The Five Houses of Leah Goldberg' June 4-11. Join The Times of Israel Community today to support our work and watch this and other outstanding documentary films in our DocuNation series.
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
From the Liveblog of
Sunday, September 6, 2020
