JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid apologized for calling a news conference on Shabbat.
The apology for last month’s news conference held outside his home came on Sunday during a meeting of the Yesh Atid party, which Lapid heads.
“I was wrong, I should not have caused other people to work on Shabbat,” Lapid reportedly said when asked about the news conference by a Yesh Atid colleague during a meeting about the coming year’s state budget, The Jerusalem Post reported.
Lapid was criticized by the left wing and the religious parties for the news conference, at which he released a three-sentence statement on Israel’s enhanced credit rating by S&P. The announcement was seen as an attempt to get a jump on the Prime Minister’s Office, which does not release statements on Shabbat.
