Ze'ev Elkin
Ze'ev ElkinYonatan Sindel/Flash90

Gideon Sa'ar's New Hope party responded Wednesday to a campaign ad by United Torah Judaism (UTJ), claiming that the ad compares Reform to dogs, Kikar Hashabbat reported.

In the video, UTJ mentions that Reform has in the past performed "bar mitzvah" ceremonies for dogs.

New Hope's Ze'ev Elkin said, "The haredi parties chose an 'all or nothing' path, and rejected the Nissim Committee's plan, which was a balanced solution."

"This isn't a joke. I think that this video from UTJ is an unprecedented low. To compare Reform and Conservative Jews to...dogs, that's classic anti-Semitic imagery.

"It's pathetic," he continued. "We can work together with UTJ, but they cannot hold us by the throat or by more sensitive parts, the way the haredi parties do today in [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu's government. We cannot allow this."

"Gideon Sa'ar, and we as a party, will not allow religious coercion," he said with finality.