Israeli politicians slammed the Netanyahu administration and the haredi protesters’ “Million Man March” in Jerusalem on Thursday.
“How long will the hypocrisy continue?” former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot wrote on X/Twitter.
“While there is a mass protest in favor of [draft] evasion, Netanyahu boasts before our best sons at Bahad 1 [an IDF commander training base] about the achievements of the IDF, while he works to exempt the haredim from the sacred and moral duty to defend the state.
“A cynical exploitation of our servicemen and a trampling of their dignity.
"The public serving deserves different leadership.”
Haredi protest was a 'disgrace to Israel'
MK Avigdor Liberman wrote that “Instead of taking an example from Gafni and Deri, the young haredim should learn from King David and Judah Maccabee.”
“A Jew is a fighter. This has been true throughout history, and it will continue to be so after the elections,” said Yisrael Beytenu leader Liberman.
“The protest against conscription is a disgrace to the leadership of the country and a spit in the face of our brave soldiers!”
He then addressed the death of a haredi youth who fell from a construction site.
“The corrupt haredi leadership is directly responsible for the painful death of a young man in a disgraceful and unnecessary protest. He went out on the orders of the same leadership to be a human shield for the power and influence of the haredi political operatives,” he wrote in response to the death of a haredi teen who scaled a construction site.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid stated that if protesters could demonstrate in Jerusalem, they could show up for recruitment.
“I want to tell all the young people going to the protest of the evaders and not enlisting in Jerusalem and marching through the streets – if you can go to a protest, you can go to a recruitment center. If you can march in the streets, you can march in basic training and defend the State of Israel.”
MK Naor Shiri slammed Transportation Minister Miri Regev in his comments.
“Jerusalem is celebrating, hundreds of thousands of draft evaders are on their way,” MK Naor Shiri wrote, disparaging Regev for providing increased transportation to haredi protesters, but not to IDF soldiers who needed to get to base on October 7.