IN searing early summer heat thousands of supporters of the Shas ultra Orthodox political party gathered in a Jerusalem soccer stadium to protest at the outcome of the Israeli attorney general scandal. The state prosecutor has decided to press charges against only one of those involved, the Shas party leader, Mr Aryeh Deri.
Mr Deri, carried around the soccer field at the Wednesday afternoon demonstration on the shoulders of his supporters, told them that he, and they, were being persecuted "for ethnic and religious reasons . . . The secularists are scared that the people of Shas will alter the secular character of the state of Israel."
As speaker after speaker came to the microphone, the tone of the attacks grew harsher and the spectrum of those targeted spread wider.
It encompassed the prosecutors, the police, secular politicians, the media, and finally the entire Ash kenazi establishment.
These are the Jews of European origin who have run Israel for the past 50 years, and who are perceived by this audience of Sephardi (Middle Eastern Jews) 19 have used that power to discriminate against Sephardim, to repress Sephardi culture and traditions.
By the end of the rally some of the organisers were talking of leading the angry crowds the few hundred metres up the hill to the Supreme Court building, symbol of the reviled secular rule. It was Mr Deri, reportedly, who talked them out of the idea.
But in the wake of the prosecutors' conclusions in the attorney general affair there can be no mistaking the sense of grievance in the Sephardi camp. Effectively the prosecutor branded Mr Deri as a blackmailer who had his man, briefly, appointed attorney general.
But the prosecutor did not find enough evidence to hold the Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, criminally responsible for submitting to that blackmail.
Some Israeli analysts are even warning of a looming ethnic civil war. Given that Shas is already Israel's third largest political party, and that ethnic grievance is a potent ballot box draw, it is not surprising that many in the party are talking of bringing down the government and triggering new general elections.
Were Shas, with its 10 Knesset seats, to bolt the coalition, Mr Netanyahu would lose his parliamentary majority.
For now, though, Mr Deri and the key party decision makers seem to be holding back, preferring instead to support the growing calls for a state commission of inquiry into the attorney general affair.
Mr Deri has also been granted a private hearing with the state prosecutors, before the planned indictments for extortion, fraud and breach of trust are drafted against him.
Justice Ministry sources are stressing that this hearing is no mere formality; Mr Deri will have a real opportunity to argue his case.
The Supreme Court, what is more, will next week begin considering several appeals against the decision not to prosecute Mr Netanyahu.
The appellants are strengthened by the "dissenting opinion" prepared by three members of the nine strong state prosecution team.
This dissenting opinion recommended either charging all four main protagonists in the scandal - Mr Netanyahu, Mr Deri, the Justice Minister, Mr Tsachi Hanegbi, and a Netanyahu aide, Mr Avigdor Lieberman - or none of them.
Only when the Supreme Court has had its say, it seems, will Mr Deri decide how to channel the fierce ethnic frustration among Sephardim that this scandal has brought to the surface.
But one thing is already clear: Mr Netanyahu's confident talk last Sunday of putting the affair behind him was wildly optimistic.