Tuesday, April 22, 2008

MAN PROTESTS WITH BREADSTICK



Tiv Taam store. Not a public place?

Man strips in protest of bread sale during Passover
Young man dressed as yeshiva student undresses at non-kosher supermarket chain, remaining only with sock covering his private parts. 'The shame is not mine,' he tells Ynet
Avi Cohen
Latest Update:
04.22.08, 00:50 / Israel News

A 27-year-old man, claiming to be a yeshiva student, decided to launch an unusual protest against a court ruling allowing stores and restaurants to sell leavened food during the holiday of Passover.
The man, dressed as a haredi, arrived Monday afternoon at a store belonging to the non-kosher Tiv Taam supermarket chain in the city of Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv. Upon his arrival, he undressed and remained with only a sock covering his private parts.
Full story
The man explained that he could not be prosecuted for an indecent act in public, because according to the court's interpretation of the leavened food law, a supermarket is not considered a public place. He even wrote on his stomach, "This isn't public???"

The store employees alerted the police, who dressed the man, arrested him and took him to the police station. In his investigation, the suspect claimed that he was a yeshiva student studying in different yeshivot in Bat Yam.

He told the police that in light of the court ruling, he did not violate any law. The police were unconvinced by the young man's interpretation of the ruling, and are expected to ask the Rishon Lezion Magistrates' Court to send him to a mental observation.

'I left sock on because I'm religious'
"I don’t know if they plan to prosecute me, but I plan to demand it. They opened an unjustified criminal record, and I plan to fight for my innocence," the young man, Arieh Yerushalmi, told Ynet on Monday night.

He explained his decision to strip despite his religious values, saying that "this is why I left the sock on, that's what I didn’t care. Sometimes one has to shout – the shame was not mine, but the other people's."

No comments: