"Police posted two guards yesterday outside [Rabbi Ovadia] Yosef's building after a Holocaust survivor threatened him over his Holocaust slur." -David Franklin, Jerusalem Post, August 9, 2000

Wednesday, August 9, 2000

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http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/08/09/News/News.10694.html

Shas fans, foes clash outside Yosef's home

David Franklin

JERUSALEM (August 9) - Amid the continuing fallout over the controversial comments made by Shas spiritual mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef about Holocaust victims as reincarnated sinners and Arabs as snakes, secular Hashomer Hatzair demonstrators and Shas supporters clashed outside the rabbi's Jerusalem home yesterday.

Police stepped in to break up the confrontation, which apparently consisted of mutual jostling, but there were no reports of injuries.

Shas officials told police they did not want a police presence at Yosef's home, saying it would not be appropriate to post uniformed guards outside the home of a spiritual leader. Instead, they agreed that the police hire two plainclothes guards from a private company. One would be posted outside his home, and one inside.

Shas says that its own people are stepping up protection around the home, in cooperation with increased police patrols.

The party has also filed a complaint with the police over the Internet site www.politicsnow.co.il, which includes a comparison between the rabbi and Hitler, and displays a photograph which appears to show Yosef in a Nazi salute. Shas says it does not who created the site, but is calling for an investigation on suspicion of "incitement to murder."

A party source said, "We have instructed our hackers to destroy the site."