Police have arrested a suspect in connection with an attack on a haredi man in Tel Aviv last week which garnered significant attention on social media.
Last Friday, three men from the Chabad movement were walking down Allenby Street in Tel Aviv when a man suddenly accosted them, shouting “haredim”.
The man forced one of the three haredi men to the ground, before walking off.
The incident, which was filmed by closed circuit television, drew condemnations from political figures, with footage of the assault going viral.
On Tuesday, a 26-year-old resident of the central Israeli city of Pardes Hanna was arrested for the assault.
The victim, Levi Blau, told Radio 103FM that he had just left his home to help passersby put on tefillin (phylacteries), as he does every week.
"We hadn't even asked that person if he wanted to put on tefillin, because we were on our way to someone," Blau recalled. "Suddenly, out of nowhere, it happened. It was really terrifying. I saw him really concentrate and then send me flying."
"We were just in shock. You can see in the video clip, I was on the floor for two minutes, also the person who was next to me. We just looked. We were in shock. From the shock, we continued walking to put on tefillin, and suddenly after a minute I said, 'It could be that this was an attack just now.'
"He yelled something, I didn't understand what he was saying. He was mumbling something. I was also very confused.
"This was traumatic, but it isn't going to influence anything," Blau emphasized. "We are going to go every Friday to the same place, to the same people, we will do it twofold. We are here, the whole yeshiva, 200 people, doing this every Friday. We won't stop, and we will even increase it."