Hundreds gathered on Sunday at the Western Wall in Jerusalem for a prayer rally against the new government as Knesset convened to vote on its formation.
Congregating under the banner of "time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it", participants — mostly religious Zionist and ultra-Orthodox Jews — said they feared the new government would harm the Jewish character of the state under "the left and the radical left."
(Video: Association of Community Rabbis)
The event's organizer said that "there is fear of a government comprised of members of Knesset that have turned the war against Judaism to their life's mission. Some of them have turned the war the settlement in the Land of Israel to their life's mission."
"We pray that G-d will not allow them to carry out their plot to weaken the Judaism of the country and the settlement in all its parts. May he prevent them the power from harming the sanctity of the family, the sanctity of the people of Israel, of the kashrut and the Sabbath. May he prevent them from abandoning the Land of Israel to the Arab takeover."
The protest rally was attended by prominent figures within the religious Zionist movement, including Rabbi Dov Lior, one of the most prominent adjudicators in religious Zionism; Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, chief rabbi of the city of Safed and member of the Chief Rabbinate Council; Rabbi Tzvi Kostiner, head of Yeshiva Midbara ke-Eden in Mitzpe Ramon; Rabbi Yehoshua Weitzman, head of Yeshivat Ma'alot; Rabbi David Dudkevitch, chief rabbi of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar; and Rabbi Yehuda Sadan, head of the High Yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Eli.