Rabbi Leo Dee, who lost his wife, Lucy, and two daughters, Rina and Maia, in a terrorist shooting attack in April, participated in a prayer service on Wednesday morning in Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv.
During the service, anti-religion protesters attempted to disrupt the prayers. One of the protesters intentionally pushed Rabbi Dee as he prayed and carried the four species.
Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv has become a focal point for clashes between religious Jews and anti-religious protesters after a public prayer service held by the Rosh Yehudi outreach organization was disrupted on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). The organizers of the prayer tried to use Israeli flags as a partition after the court accepted the municipality's position that gender segregation in prayer in a public space should be prohibited. Residents who arrived at the place confronted the worshipers, destroyed the partition, and removed the chairs that the organizers had placed. Some threw prayer books to the ground.
During Thursday's prayer service as well a partition was erected, but municipal inspectors quickly removed it.
One of those praying asked a protester if he had any idea why there had been a partition for thousands of years when Jews prayed. "It has nothing to do with gender discrimination," he said to the speechless protester.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir commented on the incident: "The footage that shows Leo Dee, whose wife and daughters were murdered in a shooting attack in the Jordan Valley, being pushed by a protester at Dizengoff Square, only because he dared to pray and hold the four species in the city streets is shocking and disturbing. I strongly condemn it. I ordered the police to work determinedly against those criminals the same way they arrested those who spat at pilgrims yesterday."
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote: "Leo Dee, who lost his wife and daughters a few months ago in a murderous terror attack, was attacked because he prayed in Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv may not become a dangerous place for the traditional, religious, and haredi community. The responsibility is in the hands of Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid. The protest has become a protest against Jewish tradition. It's dangerous, stop."