Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Monday, May 29, 2023

Smotrich accuses the left of ‘normalizing violence’ after protest against Rothman

29 May 2023, 4:23 pm 2 Edit

Finance Minister and Religious Zionism party chief Bezalel Smotrich leads his party's faction meeting at Jerusalem's Knesset, May 8, 2023. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

Finance Minister and Religious Zionism party chief Bezalel Smotrich leads his party's faction meeting at Jerusalem's Knesset, May 8, 2023. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

Religious Zionism party leader Bezalel Smotrich lashes the opposition after one of his faction’s leading lawmakers, MK Simcha Rothman, was evacuated from an event at Tel Aviv University yesterday due to aggressively rowdy protesters.

Rothman is the chair of the Knesset Constitution Committee and one of the key figures in the coalition’s push to overhaul the judiciary.

“The violence toward Rothman was unimaginable. For many years already, the left has not tried to win arguments, but to prevent arguments,” Smotrich says at a faction meeting.

He urges opposition party leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz to take action.

“I call on Gantz and Lapid to come around and stop normalizing violence,” Smotrich says.