Yossi Dagan, the head of the Shomron Regional Council, called on Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday to retract his words about the Chareidi community, Arutz Sheva reported.

Bennett said at a conference on Tuesday that ” I’m happy there are Chareidim but we need to limit their political sway.”

Dagan explained that he feels that the Chareidi and the Dati Leumi communities are one. “The Chareidi community and its elected representatives are our natural partners,” he said. “We’re one and the same.”

Uzi Baruch, the CEO and head editor of Arutz Sheva, also slammed Bennett for his comment. “It’s ridiculous that a politician who currently wouldn’t pass the electoral threshold, who holds six mandates of whom a large number feels betrayed by him, allows himself to exclude a large community with 16 mandates,” Baruch said in an interview with Kol Chai Radio.

“When I heard him choose davka the Jerusalem Post Conference to come out against the Chareidi community, I was embarrassed. I thought maybe it was just me but then I read what Rav Amichai Gordon, a Bennett supporter, wrote: “Prime Minister, stop immediately. You need to foster connection…don’t encourage aversion, bordering on hatred, toward other communities.”

“Some people may say that I’m a Bennett supporter, but I’m much closer and have more in common with the Chareidi public, with Meir Porush or Aryeh Deri than with [Meretz chairman Nitzan Horowitz, [Meretz MK] Mossi Raz, [Labor chairman] Merav Michaeli, and [Labor MK] Ibtisam Mara’ana.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)