The police have detained three persons suspected of attacking Mayor Teddy Kollek Saturday as he emerged from a synagogue in an Orthodox neighborhood and are searching for four more suspects. One of the men was arrested yesterday and two were taken into custody early today. All have denied they were involved in the attack. Their identities were not made public.
Kollek had attended services at the Persian synagogue in the Bukharian quarter when he was surrounded by a mob of some 200 religious zealots from the adjacent Mea Shearim quarter. He was knocked to the ground, kicked, punched and scratched. He suffered a knee injury but was able to drive himself home and returned to work yesterday.
Police, who arrived at the scene after the incident staged raids this morning on the homes of six suspects, two of whom were apprehended. The others are apparently in hiding. Six forged passports were found in the home of one of the men.
In an unrelated arrest, the police yesterday detained Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, self-styled “foreign minister” of the Eda Haredit, an extremist ultra-Orthodox group, who allegedly resisted officers who had come to arrest his son and daughter on suspicion of avoiding compulsory military service.
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