Israeli Construction and Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman resigned on Sunday over the nationwide lockdown the government is planning to impose during the High Holidays.
“For about a month now, while we have been dealing with rising infections in Israel, I have been warning against [National Coronavirus Project coordinator] professor Ronni Gamzu’s intentions to impose a full closure on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which will prevent hundreds of thousands of Jews from all communities and sectors from praying in synagogues,” Litzman wrote in a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Ynet.
Litzman claimed that the government was scheduling the lockdown for the holidays even though he and Gamzu had reached an understanding on the issue.
According to a statement from his office, at the start of Sunday’s Cabinet meeting Netanyahu said, “I very much regret Minister Litzman’s decision to resign from the government. I regard Yaakov Litzman very highly, and I respect his decision. We must move forward and make the decisions that are necessary for the State of Israel during the corona period. This is what we will do at this meeting.”