The Knesset was in an uproar Tuesday following a hard slap delivered by a Justice Ministry attorney to a hareidi-religious MK after a session on special allocations. Rabbis comment on intra-religious implications (see below).

Attorney Amnon De-Hartuch, head of the special allocations division in the Attorney General's office, smacked MK Yaakov Cohen (United Torah Judaism) in the face Tuesday morning.  The incident climaxed great tensions between the lawyer and the hareidi representatives over his frequent refusals to approve certain allocations to religious schools. Some said that his religious-Zionist lifestyle and halakhic [Jewish legal] arguments also contributed to the tensions.

The argument heated up when De-Hartuch called Cohen an "animal," and Cohen retorted by saying, "You're worse than the Germans; they wanted to destroy the body, while you want to destroy our soul."  De-Hartuch said, "I'll smack you," the MK then said, "I'm waiting for that," and De-Hartuch delivered. 

MK Cohen fell to the floor, and was treated by medics on the site for bruises and high blood pressure.  He was then taken to the hospital, upon the recommendation of the Knesset's doctor, where his condition was said to be stable.

The Knesset secretariat later decided to ban De-Hartuch from the Knesset forever.  Later Tuesday evening, De-Hartuch apologized, but said that his father's family was largely wiped out in the Holocaust and that he lost control after MK Cohen compared him to Germans.

MK Cohen's son Yehuda told Army Radio, "Here is a chance for the justice system in Israel to prove that it does not have a double standard. I remember a few years ago when someone threw tea on MK Yael Dayan of Labor - and received three years in prison!"

Interestingly, opinion on the incident was divided within the religious-Zionist National Union party.  MK Uri Ariel immediately called for De-Hartuch's dismissal, while party colleague MK Tzvi Hendel came to the lawyer's defense.  "No one has the right to use violence," Hendel said, "but it must be said: De-Hartuch is a good person."

Arutz-7 asked Rabbi Eliyahu Shlesinger - a long-time hareidi rabbi of the largely religious-Zionist community in Gilo - if he feels that the altercation is representative of "bad blood" between the two publics, and if so, what can be done about it.



Rabbi Shlesinger was very conciliatory: "It's clear that there are many people in each sector who are very close to the other... Unfortunately, on the fringes of both sectors there are extremists who distance themselves more and more from the other, and perhaps there is even some hatred.  For instance, there was a survey that showed that some religious-Zionists feel closer to the secular than to the hareidi-religious sector, and would even choose secular schools for their children over hareidi schools if they had to... We also know that there are some in the hareidi camp who are very critical of the others and are not at all willing to have any dialogue with them. But from my experience in Gilo, I see such a beautiful community here, and I can say that those on the fringe do not represent the mainstream..."



"There are differences, of course," Rabbi Shlesinger said, "such as on Independence Day and the like; it's a question of the precise relationship to the State of Israel compared with the People of Israel.  But aside from that, there are so many similarities between the two groups in observance and Torah study and commitment.  We see many of the religious-Zionist youths turning to Hasidism, etc. ... There are so many similarities, that there is no need to look for the differences."

Rabbi Yedidya Cohen, the rabbi of a religious-Zionist synagogue in De-Hartuch's neighborhood of Ramot, said, "There are some tensions, but they are certainly not felt day-to-day. We are at home praying in each other's synagogues, and we do so with mutual respect. We must remember that we have a lot in common.  I'm not even sure that the incident in question occurred on a religious background, but merely because Amnon De-Hartuch is so very straight and by-the-book; he said he is a child of Holocaust survivors, and that's why he was so incensed at what the MK said..."



Some residents of Ramot implied that the religious-Zionist public is slightly wary of an increase in the hareidi population in their midst.  Rabbi Cohen's reaction: "There is no reason to be apprehensive.  If we, as a public, take pride in our philosophy and outlook, and organize activities and the like, our community will thrive and grow."