Minister of Jerusalem and Jewish Tradition Meir Porush participated this evening (Sunday) in the 'Jerusalem Conference' of Channel 7 and the 'Besheva' newspaper in New York - and at the beginning of his remarks, he addressed the harassment suffered by MK Simcha Rotman from demonstrators in the city.
""I saw the protesters from afar. Protests are democratic. I express my sorrow for what they did to Simcha Rothman, one of the most effective and prominent MKs in this Knesset. It's a shame they don't know how to draw boundaries - but protests are a democratic thing.".
Porush was asked how he relates to the government's visibility and the attacks against the ultra-Orthodox parties: "I can't understand those who call for demonstrations, why are they highlighting the issue of the religious? Because what? Don't the religious have equal rights? This government, a year and a half ago, transferred 54 billion NIS to the Palestinians, to the Arabs, who not only don't serve.
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""The minds are crossing a red line, some in the leadership are calling for not serving. The left says that if the Knesset passes the reform, they will not serve. We did not say that we will not serve because the country is not run according to Halacha, we are asking for a postponement for more students." .
According to him, "They feel that by talking about Haredi, it will add votes to them. But many things Netanyahu did, Lapid took a step against, and in the end adopted it, like Norwegian laws, which he called waste. When he was in power, he left it. Lapid and his people were also willing to give us a lot of money for our education, when he wanted them not to vote against the budget.
""I really hope that after we pass the budget, this government has at least a year and a half without discussions and clashes over the budget, and that it gets on the right track.".
About Jerusalem, he said: "Not everything goes easily in Jerusalem, even the opposite, precisely because it is such a special city, the challenges it faces are special, the diversity of the population, the economic difficulties, and unfortunately also international terrorism and persecution. Thank God, Jerusalem is now in a period of calm and quiet, and we must pray that it will continue like this. Tell people who don't know the truth about Jerusalem, try to bring more people to Jerusalem, because there is no better place than Jerusalem.".
