Sicarii Threaten To Kill Israel's Haredi Deputy Health Minister

The Shin Bet and Prime Minister's Office have decided to provide Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman with private bodyguards following death threats from the Mea Shearim haredi extremist group known as the Sicarii.

Rabbi Yakov Litzman

Deputy Minister Litzman gets bodyguards
Shin Bet tightens security around deputy health minister following death threats made against him by extreme ultra-Orthodox faction
Ari Galahar • Ynet

The Shin Bet and Prime Minister's Office have decided to provide Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman with private bodyguards following death threats.

Sources close to Litzman say the threats came from within the ultra-Orthodox world.

"The threats were made by the Sicarii, a group known to the haredi public as problematic and violent people," one of the deputy minister's associates explains. "The group members are threatening to hurt Litzman, apparently because he represents the Ger Hasidic dynasty in the Knesset."

A conflict erupted several months ago between the Hasidic dynasty and the Sicarii and several residents of Mea Shearim over the ownership of real estate worth tens of millions of shekels in the Jerusalem neighborhood.

The struggle focuses on the Kolel Polin association, which controls many assets in the neighborhoods.

The parties have been fighting for every vacant apartment, and anonymous assailants have even set fire to one of the flats while people were still in it. In other incidents, people were expelled from within the houses.

Another source of tension between Litzman and the Sicarii is the "Or Hachaim" bookstore, which has suffered many acts of vandalism over the past few months.

The group members suspect Litzman is secretly supporting the bookstore owner and urging him not to give in to the extremists' pressures.

Litzman is not the first person to receive tight security following Sicarii threats. Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch has also been subject to quite a few threats from the group members.

Litzman's office confirmed the report, stating that the Shin Bet and Prime Minister's Office were responsible for the deputy minister's security.

Note: Litzman is really Israel's Health Minister. But he carries the title of Deputy Health Minister in order to avoid voting on war-related cabinet decisions.

Comments

[Avi Rosenthal]

I thought he was only "deputy" in order to pretend to not be a member of a Zionist government.

[amrilusaguy]

Actually if my memory serves he is a Deputy Minister because he has not served in the IDF - Those who do not serve and should have served who are of the age they should/could have served and did not, can not be full ministers

[danny]

As a kid, I grew up hearing about Israeli Intelligence and Police being the best in the world. How their agents have the capability to suss out nefarious plots in Tehran, Cairo, and Damascus.

Here we have a group of misfits openly conducting violence in the capital city of Israel. And they directly threaten a government minister. However, no one knows who they are, where they are located, who funds them, etc.

[Shmarya]

Actually if my memory serves he is a Deputy Minister because he has not served in the IDF - Those who do not serve and should have served who are of the age they should/could have served and did not, can not be full ministers

Posted by: amrilusaguy | October 24, 2011 at 06:50 AM

That isn't true.

Army service is not a legal prerequisite for being a cabinet minister.

[anuran]

Danny, they could but they won't. If they don't coddle the terrorists the terrorists won't like them.

[Jake]

1. Having served in the IDF is not a requirent to be minister.
2. Litzmans party was to get a ministerial position. However do to his political considerations they did not want a full ministerial title or position. So in a typical Israeli compromise he became the assistant health minister with all the powers of a full minister except for voting rights in the cabinet. From what I have heard he is doing a pretty good job in a ministry that is considered a backwater job.

[Korbendallas72]

His office isn't important enough to waste our outrage upon. The Haredim have given us outrage fatigue.

[spacedout BT]

Litzman- if I remember correctly, went to the mats with the J'lem judiciary to get Mondrowitz released from prison.

[Adam Neira]

Wow !

Will they listen to the righteous redeemer when he turns up in the Holy Land ?

The reason that public servants must be well paid is that they cannot be accused of corruption and vested interests. Planning decisions can prove very controversial.

[ultra haredi lite]

Litzman and Mondro are both Gerrers.