Israeli police searching for two suspects who assaulted ultra-Orthodox lawmaker

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United Torah Judaism lawmaker Meir Porush was physically attacked on Monday near his home in Jerusalem.

Two suspects holding a sharp object attacked Porush, tried to cut his beard and fled, said the police statement. He managed to push them off, and did not require medical treatment. The police opened an investigation, and are conducting a search for the suspects.

Porush’s aide said that after the lawmaker left his home, “a young man who appeared to be Haredi arrived on a scooter, asked him whether he was Meir Porush, and when he said ‘yes,’ attacked him.” The police said the attackers looked Haredi, but it is still not clear if they were really Haredim or just dressed up that way.

Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy spoke with Porush after the incident and said he was shocked by the “ugly and violent attack.” Levy said the attack on public figures “was an act destructive to democracy and that is how it must be treated.” Levy also spoke with the commander of the police’s Jerusalem District, Maj. Gen. Doron Turgeman, and discussed the investigation of the incident with him, as well as ways to swiftly catch the attackers.

United Torah Judaism lawmaker Yaakov Litzman said he was shocked by the violent attack. “This is a new and dangerous low and the crossing of a red line. The police must act quickly and put their hands on the attackers, and act against them with the full severity of the law.”

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President Isaac Herzog spoke with Porush “to strengthen him and condemn the attack on him this morning near his home. Violence against any person, and certainly against a public representative, crosses a red line, and we must treat it with the utmost severity. It is doubly shocking that such an incident occurred right before Yom Kippur. I’m certain that the law enforcement system will locate the attackers and bring them to justice,” said Herzog.