Hundreds attend hassidic wedding in city with highest rate of infections
As infections surge, mass ultra-Orthodox weddings held despite lockdown rules
Hundreds attend events in Beitar Illit, where positive test rate is highest in Israel at 26%, and Bnei Brak.
Police dispersed hundreds of guests at an ultra-Orthodox wedding celebration in the city of Beitar Illit late Tuesday night.
Video footage has emerged of a massive ultra-Orthodox
wedding was staged Tuesday night in Beitar Illit, the city with the
highest rate of positive COVID-19 tests in the country, and the fourth
highest rate of new infections per 10,000 inhabitants.The
wedding celebration was staged by the grand rabbi of the radical Toldot
Avraham Yitzhak hassidic community for his grandson, a part of the
anti-Zionist Eda Haredit communal association. Footage of the wedding celebration obtained by the
Kikar Hashabbat news site showed hundreds of hassidim, almost entirely
without masks, in an event hall singing and swaying shoulder to
shoulder.
Other video footage showed police personnel waiting outside the building where the wedding was staged, although the police did eventually enter and break up the event. The police said that when they arrived the doors of the building were locked and those inside refused to open them.
Other video footage showed police personnel waiting outside the building where the wedding was staged, although the police did eventually enter and break up the event. The police said that when they arrived the doors of the building were locked and those inside refused to open them.
Only
after dialogue with organizers were the doors opened. Upon entering,
the police said they saw hundreds of wedding guests who were not wearing masks.
While
the police were dispersing the wedding participants, dozens of them
gathered outside the building and fought with the police, threw stones
at them and damaged police vehicles, the police said.Additional
police forces were summoned to the site to fully disperse all wedding
participants and others who had gathered at the site.
The organizers of the wedding as well as the building owners were summoned for a police investigation.In
addition, Acting Police Chief Kobi Shabtai removed the officers who
allowed the wedding to take place from their posts until the
investigation was completed.
As
of today (Wednesday), Beitar Illit had the highest rate of positive
tests at 26%, and the fourth highest rate of new COVID-19 infections in
the country with 145.5 per 10,000 residents.
