comment If I d have stayed, I would have died, says driver of bus torched by Haredi rioters
Eyal Tzipori arrived in predominantly ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak with five passengers and was attacked by mob enraged by police efforts to enforce health regulations; he was rescued by paramedics who fought tooth and nail to save him
Ynet |
Published: 01.25.21 , 12:14
Public bus driver Eyal Tzipori arrived in Bnei Brak on Sunday night with five passengers, precisely as hundreds of ultra-Orthodox extremists were clashing with police over the enforcement of coronavirus restrictions and crackdowns on unauthorized gatherings at synagogues and Haredi educational institutions.
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United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni speaks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) in the Knesset on November 24, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90/File)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday condemned violent pushback in the ultra-Orthodox community against the lockdown rules, while quietly moving to soften a bill that would have doubled fines against violators to appease his Haredi political allies.
The emerging political compromise on the financial penalties was met with an ultimatum by Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who warned he would prevent the government’s lockdown rules from being brought to a Knesset vote unless the fines were doubled.
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A bus set alight by an ultra-Orthodox mob in the city of Bnei Brak, January 24, 2021. (Israel Police)
Firefighters situated down the street from an ultra-Orthodox riot on Sunday night refused to extinguish a bus set on fire by the mob for an hour, despite frantic pleas from local residents, according to Hebrew media reports on Monday.
Police also largely avoided the area, allowing the rioting against the lockdown rules and the arson to continue late into the night.
According to a report by the Haaretz daily, the mob pulled a driver from his bus and beat him, lightly injuring him, around midnight. It was the second such attack against a bus driver, following a similar unprovoked assault by the rioters in the early evening.