Heads of the Haredi political parties and chairman of the Religious Zionist Party MK Bezalel Smotrich criticized Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu for desecrating the Sabbath by congratulating gold medalist Linoy Ashram on her historic Olympic win on Saturday, and posting about it on social media.
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On Saturday night, Smotrich tweeted, "I'm happy about Linoy's gold, but sad about the desecration of the Sabbath, happy that the prime minster and president waiting until Shabbat was over to offer their congratulations, sad that Netanyahu put out a message on Shabbat."
United Torah Judaism chairman Moshe Gafni said, "The Olympic Games are not pikuach nefesh [a matter of life or death], and the Opposition leader holds a government position and should not have desecrated the Sabbath by putting out a message. I'm happy that the president and the prime minister waited until Shabbat was over [to congratulate Ashram]."
In response to the criticism, Netanyahu's Likud party apologized for the incident in a tweet late Saturday night.
"The Likud has always honored Shabbat and taken care not to put out press releases during Shabbat, and we will continue to do so. The message today approximately an hour before the end of Shabbat was a technical mistake, which we regret," the tweet said.
