More ministers receive threatening letters with powder

Letters sent to offices of Eli Yishai and Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman; Tzipi Livni: "Such actions should be condemned outright."

By JPOST.COM STAFF
haredi death threat 311 (photo credit: courtesy)
haredi death threat 311
(photo credit: courtesy)
A day after two United Torah Judaism MKs received envelopes containing unidentified white powder and letters with threatening rhetoric, similar letters were sent Monday to the offices of Interior Minister Eli Yishai and Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman.
Police were investigating the powder and forbade the two officials from entering their offices.
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The Knesset has also opened an investigation into the envelopes. It has not been determined whether the powder inside the envelopes is dangerous.
In response to the incident, opposition leader Tzipi Livni said, "I have strong arguments with haredi MKs. It's no secret. Today I heard that some of the MKs received threatening letters and racist statements against them. Even as someone who has strong arguments with the MKs, I am the first to say that such actions should be condemned outright," Livni said. 
The letters sent on Sunday were addressed to “the rabbis and yeshiva heads” and bore at the bottom an ensign of a haredi skull and crossbones. An anonymous and inarticulate writer said, “We, the enlightened residents of the State of Israel, demand that you people of darkness stop living at our expense, learning all day and not working, not serving in the army or reserve duty...get out of our veins!”
“Stop sucking our blood,” the letters continued. “Grab your packs and Shtreimels, your smelly beards and sideburns, and take off to Brooklyn!!! Consider yourselves warned!!! If you continue extorting budgets at our expense, and at the expense of our students and culture, you will pay a heavy price. We will start fighting you physically, and not just in demonstrations, and you will feel our attacks on your bodies, and on your synagogues...and we will go after you in your cities and neighborhoods.”