In a WhatsApp group for the protest against the government in Tel Aviv, one of the leaders of the protests posted a heartfelt essay regarding the disruption to the Yom Kippur prayers of the 'Rosh Yehudi' organization in Dizengoff Square and made it clear that he and many others were shocked by the incident.
"I am the farthest, light years away, from the people who disturbed the worshipers during the prayer there. I think it is the most non-liberal thing to do. To disturb a person praying is anti-liberal - and even worse, it was on Yom Kippur," he said.
According to him, "This organization, who are also apparently not the most righteous, asked for permission from the Tel Aviv municipality. They were given permission, but without partitions, they petitioned the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court said they do not interfere with the municipality's decisions, and then the worshippers came and used the flag as a partition. Anyone who is bothered by this, that there is illegal activity in Tel Aviv, is invited to tell them so to the maximum extent possible.''
''If that doesn't help, call the 106 hotline for the municipality and the police at the same time. Everything is allowed, but that's where the solutions in the toolbox run out. That is, you don't start solving crimes now and start to enforce everything that happens in this city. There are things that are a little more serious than some partitions with the Israeli flag, which only God knows if it really counts as a partition anyway. People are not to be disturbed from praying, it is not okay in any way. I am against this thing."
The man also stated in the recording: "I'm secular. I go to synagogue once in a while. But even this time I go, the method of my prayer is the Orthodox method. That's how it is for 90% of the seculars in Israel, including the guys who came to the square to pray. They put up their makeshift partitions, but there were also 100 or 1,000 square meters where you could pray in a mixed way. It wouldn't bother anyone."
"What do you want to happen in the future? Any gathering that is gender-based will be forbidden?" he wondered. "I have a friend who leads men's circles. By the way, only leftists do this - only my friends and the like. What will happen if a woman comes and wants to sit in the middle of the circle because the park is also hers? Give people space. There is enough space to pray the way you want. Don't disturb people."
"What will happen next year? Next year, this organization, or a similar organization, will come and ask to pray in Dizengoff, and then the municipality will say no - we will organize our own prayer that will be led by a Reform rabbi in the most Tel Aviv and modern method. However, the organization will ask for another place, such as Rabin Square or HaBima Square. The municipality will have to say yes. Then those who came to pray in Dizengoff in the reform prayer will only be misled, all because by mistake in some other area, someone put an Israeli flag as a partition, and they will run to disturb them," he added.
"Tell me, where will we go? Where will we go with this thing? This is not the reason we went to the protests. We went to the demonstrations against the coup d'état. We went to the demonstrations against the predatory legislation. What does this have to do with it? It's not our vibe, absolutely not our vibe," the protest leader concluded.