Rabbi Zalman Melamed
Rabbi Zalman MelamedIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Rabbi Zalman Melamed, Head of Beit El Yeshiva and of the community of Beit El, harshly condemned the arrest of Rabbi Dov Lior Monday morning. 

“Rabbi Lior Shlita’s arrest, more than it affects his dignity or that of Torah, detracts from the dignity of the State of Israel and even more so, of the police and prosecution,” he said, adding: 
“A police force that arrests a great rabbi because of his agreement with a book – an arrest that in no way helps the police gain any new knowledge – is a shameful and despicable act that besmirches the police, the prosecution, and all who had the ability to prevent it and did not do so, be they in the Ministry for Public Security or the Ministry of Justice.”
 
“I have two words for these people: for shame!”
The Federation of Higher Yeshivas said that “a sage and yeshiva head has been publicly shamed.” It decried attempts “to block freedom of opinion and rabbinical halakhic rulings.”
 
The Hesder Yeshivas Federation expressed shock at the arrest and called it “an offense to the Torah and its students and an attempt to block rabbis’ freedom of expression through severe, unacceptable and anti-democratic means.”
 
“We call upon the Torah world, in all of its hues and views, to stand firm in the face of the attempt to impugn the dignity of the Torah and of the sages.”
 
The Hesder Federation called upon the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice to cancel the arrest warrant against Rabbi Lior.