Haredi Member of Knesset from the United Torah Judaism Party Rabbi Moshe
Gafni has reportedly received a death threat similar to the death
threats the chief rabbis and the rabbi of the Kotel (Western Wall)
received earlier in the week.
Haredi MK Gets Death Threat
Shmarya Rosenberg • Failedmessiah.com
Ynet reports that haredi Member of Knesset from the United Torah Judaism Party Rabbi Moshe Gafni has received a death threat similar to the death threats the chief rabbis and the rabbi of the Kotel (Western Wall) received earlier in the week.
The letter threatened Gafni personally and threatened to kill hundreds of haredim unless Women of the Wall is allowed to pray as they choose at the Kotel without haredi or state interference.
Women of the Wall strongly condemned the earlier threats and condemned violence in general, as well.
The threat against Gafni was reportedly given to the Knesset security officer for investigation.
Gafni’s office issued a statement with an eschatological tenor that claims that the letter he received and the other threatening letters are part of a wider campaign of slander and incitement against haredim and castigates Women of the Wall for thier "dangerous provocation" – praying.
“Recently the hareidi-religious community has been under attack. Its entire way of life has been slandered and vilified. The dangerous provocation of the Women of the Wall could bring disaster on us, G-d forbid.
“We will not be swayed by threats. This is an ideological issue, this is about protecting the remnant of our holy Temple, and we will continue to do so,” Gafni’s prepared statement reportedly reads.
Women of the Wall is not known to be violent, and in the more than two decades Women of the Wall has been in existence there have been no previous acts of violence linked to it or to its close supporters, which has led some to speculate that the threats are actually being made by haredim or Orthodox Jews in order to smear Women of the Wall and gain both sympathy and police support for Women of the Wall’s haredi and Orthodox opponents.
Women of the Wall holds a one-day-per-month new month prayer service at the Kotel every month of the year except for the Hebrew month of Tishrei, when it would fall of Rosh Hashana.
Due to a stunning court ruling, last month was the first time Women of the Wall was allowed to pray out loud, wear tallits and tefillin (prayer shawls and phylacteries) and, if they choose to do so, publicly read from a Torah scroll.
Thousands of haredi massed at the Kotel to try to block Women of the Wall's access while some haredim rioted and tried to physically harm Women of the Wall members.
Riot police intervened to protect Women of the Wall members and their supporters from the haredi mob.