Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef Slams Attorney General Over Canceled Memorial Event

Sephardic spiritual leader Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef fiercely criticized Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Saturday night, accusing her of preventing a memorial event for his father, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Rabbi Yosef stated that Baharav-Miara's decision, which he claims prohibits the event due to its proximity to elections, is "insane" and called for non-compliance with her legal opinion, vowing "this will not pass in silence."

During his weekly sermon, Rabbi Yosef compared the prohibition of his father's memorial to the allowance of memorial rallies for the assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He argued that Rabin's event, associated with the political left, was permitted, while his father's, a "great Torah scholar," was being blocked, suggesting political bias in the Attorney General's decision.

Baharav-Miara's legal opinion stated that the memorial event could not proceed in its planned format due to election period restrictions and the potential for it to be perceived as political campaigning. The Ministry of Religious Services strongly opposed this, citing a Knesset law mandating an annual state commemoration of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's legacy and questioning why Rabin's memorial, also politically aligned, would not face similar restrictions.

The Shas party also condemned the Attorney General's demand, calling it an "audacious and outrageous" attempt to harm Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's memory and a "blatant trampling" of the Knesset-approved law. Shas chairman Aryeh Deri declared that the election would be a choice between the "rule of the Attorney General, who tries to erase every spark of Torah and Judaism," and the "legacy of Maran" (Rabbi Ovadia Yosef) and Jewish tradition.