Refaeli weds amid no-fly zone spat
Israeli supermodel ties the knot with importing magnate in no-cell phone wedding
Stop the presses, and try to stop all aircraft: Bar Refaeli is married.
The 30-year-old supermodel tied the knot with businessman Adi Ezra, 40, Thursday afternoon at a ceremony in northern Israel after a prolonged battle over a no-fly zone in the skies over the ceremony.
The rabbi was flown in by helicopter and the guests were shuttled in by bus and stripped of their phones to prevent unlicensed photographs of the event in the Carmel Forest.
One paparazzo was whisked to the hospital after he was beaten up by security guards during an attempt to snap pictures of the event.
The bride and groom started dating in 2012 after Refaeli broke up with Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Refaeli was the subject of public outrage in the past because she did not carry out her two years of mandatory military service, engaging in a quickie wedding (with Arik Weinstein) instead before divorcing after two years in 2005.
Her fiance’s family owns the Israeli food importing company Neto ME Holdings.
Earlier this week, Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority announced that it would override the transportation minister, Yisrael Katz, and instate a no-fly zone in the 4-square-mile airspace over the site of the wedding on Thursday evening in the Carmel Forest in northern Israel. Hoping to avoid the peeping gaze of paparazzi, Refaeli and her fiancé Adi Ezra had asked the authority to shut down the airspace above the wedding. Citing safety concerns over potentially congested airspace, the authority agreed.
That sparked an angry retort from Katz, who said “the skies belong to the entire public and exclusivity cannot be granted for commercial reasons for high-profile people.”
After reports emerged that flights would still be restricted, Katz delivered a scathing note to the authority’s director, saying “if the skies above Bar Refaeli’s wedding won’t be open, you will be removed from your post.”
AFP contributed to this story.