United Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush was attacked near his Jerusalem home on Monday and fended off two assailants who tried to cut off his beard, police reported.
The attackers ran away, and Porush did not require medical attention, the police said.
President Isaac Herzog spoke with Porush shortly after the attack, his office said in a statement.
“Violence against anyone, and certainly against emissaries and elected officials, is crossing a redline, and we must treat it with the utmost severity,” Herzog said. “I am confident that the law-enforcement system will locate the attackers and bring them to justice soon.”
Knesset Speaker MK Mickey Levy told Porush he was shocked over the attack. He said the incident was “an act destructive to democracy.”
Levy also spoke to Jerusalem District Police Cmdr. Doron Turgeman and discussed the investigation and efforts to apprehend the attackers as soon as possible.
“I am shocked by the violent attack against MK Rabbi Meir Porush by dangerous assailants in Jerusalem,” UTJ MK Ya’acov Litzman said in a statement.
“This is a new and dangerous low point and crosses a redline. The police must act quickly, get their hands on the attackers and act against them with the full might of the law. It is unfathomable that a public servant is attacked, harmed or feels threatened in any way.”