Rabbi Meir Mazuz, a leading Sephardic rabbi, on Saturday night urged his followers to vote for MK Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism party, if they are not willing to vote for the haredi parties.
"Torah students should only vote for haredi parties," Rabbi Mazuz said, adding that "those who are not Torah students, those who think about voting for other parties, should only vote for Religious Zionism, and not for any other party."
"It is forbidden to remain at home. Whoever remains at home [and doesn't vote] - his life is forfeit. But whoever thinks not to vote for them (Religious Zionism - ed.) and wants to vote for all sorts of parties which maybe have a few people who are Sabbath-observant - he should know this is a danger, because they will join with [Yisrael Beytenu Chairman MK Avigdor] Liberman and with the Left, which hates the Torah.
"Therefore, for such people it is preferable that they vote for [MK Bezalel] Smotrich (Religious Zionism) and [Itamar] Ben Gvir (Otzma Yehudit), who are also good and honest people."
"We don't have 61," Rabbi Mazuz warned. "For one vote, we're hanging in the air. So we need to unite with Smotrich as well. Religious Zionism observe Torah and its commandments, and there are many very good people among them."
"Noam (a party which joined Religious Zionism - ed.) is the student of Rabbi [Tzvi] Tau, may he be healthy, who is G-d fearing and a righteous person. There is also Itamar Ben Gvir (which also joined with Religious Zionism - ed.) - he is a very good person.
"We need to support them," he urged. "Otherwise, who knows how many tens of thousands of votes will be lost."
Earlier on Saturday night, Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, a leader of the Lithuanian-haredi community, urged his followers to avoid voting for Religious Zionism, preferring instead that they vote for United Torah Judaism.
