Arieh Yerushalmi
Passover stripper returns to non-kosher store
Man arrested last year for taking off his clothes in Tiv Ta'am supermarket in Bat Yam in protest of its bread sales during Jewish holiday strikes again, this time in Tel Aviv
A 28-year-old man, who was arrested last year for stripping in a Bat Yam Tiv Ta'am supermarket branch in protest of the chain's sale of leavened food during Passover, struck again on Sunday, this time in Tel Aviv.
Arieh Yerushalmi of Bat Yam arrived at the non-kosher supermarket branch on Tel Aviv's Nahalat Binyamin Street on Sunday afternoon, and startled unsuspecting shoppers when he stripped down to nothing but a sock covering his private parts.
Police arrived at the scene and took Yerushalmi away, still wearing only a single sock. During his investigation, it became apparent that Yerushalmi carried out a similar protest last year in Bat Yam.
Last year's protest. Yerushalmi's stomach reads: 'This isn't public???'
No indictment was filed against Yerushalmi at the time, and following Sunday's incident, he may be indicted for both cases, or possibly even sent for psychiatric observation.
After the previous incident, Yerushalmi told Ynet that he could not be prosecuted for an indecent act in public, because according to the court's interpretation of the leavened food law, a supermarket is not considered a public place. He even wrote on his stomach, "This isn't public???"
After being arrested and questioned the first time, Yerushalmi was put under house arrest. He claimed that he was released because the establishment was not interested in a "media party" at the courtroom.
He explained his decision to strip despite his religious values, saying that "this is why I left the sock on, that's why I didn’t care. Sometimes one has to shout – the shame was not mine, but the other people's."
