Rabbi Litzman Protests Ill-Timed Interview Broadcast

Health Minister Rabbi Yaakov Litzman has protested the unsuitable broadcast of an interview he gave Channel Ten news during Shabbos. “The Minister does not give interviews to programs that are to be broadcast on Shabbos,” a spokesperson for Rabbi Litzman said. “We have protested this action of Channel Ten. We were promised that the interview [would] be broadcast on a weekday only.”

The interview was granted as part of coverage by Channel Ten of the “interviewee’s efforts to make a major impact on Israeli society.” Featured was Rabbi Litzman’s efforts to sharply reduce the amount of junk food eaten by Israelis.

The minister’s office said that he was informed that due to the coverage of Shimon Peres’s funeral, the broadcast schedule had changed and the interview was broadcast on Friday night. Channel Ten had no official public response on the matter.

In the interview, Rabbi Litzman said that he would continue efforts to reduce the amount of junk food eaten by Israelis. “We will continue the struggle in the coming year. We will no longer distribute chocolate milk with added sugar to children in kindergartens. We have already informed the big companies of this and they are preparing to produce chocolate milk without added sugar,” he said in the interview.