United Torah Judaism and Shas condemned extremist violence against ministers amid tensions surrounding the advancement of a bill enforcing haredi (ultra-Orthodox) conscription to the IDF.
Shas’s Yoav Ben-Tzur was attacked this week by haredi protesters demonstrating against a bill that, if passed, would require army enlistment among members of this community.
Ben-Tzur’s car window was reportedly smashed, and trash bags were thrown at his vehicle in the incident, according to Israel Police.
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman denounced these actions during a Knesset faction press conference on Monday, calling the radical haredim involved “a group of thugs.”
“These are groups of criminals; if they had devoted as much energy to studying Torah as they do to rioting and causing chaos, the third Temple could have been erected by now,” he said.
Further, Liberman called for strict measures against draft evaders, including imprisonment and the revocation of voting rights.
“First, we will put all draft dodgers in prison, and then we will strip them of the right to vote,” Liberman said.
In response to these comments, Shas said on Tuesday, “When we hear Liberman today and the disrespectful way he speaks about Torah scholars following this event, we understand the magnitude of the desecration of God that those rioters caused.”
United Torah Judaism condemned the attacks, saying it “strongly protests and unequivocally condemns the recent acts of violence against rabbinical emissaries who are ultra-Orthodox Knesset members.”
The party added that at its faction meeting, “Members rejected with disgust the unfounded claim that these were mere ‘protests,’ stressing that these were serious acts of violence, something that has no place anywhere in any form.”
Netanyahu denounces haredi extremism
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had also denounced the haredi extremist attacks during the opening remarks of the government meeting on Sunday.
Meetings on advancing the controversial haredi draft law were canceled earlier this month and remain off the agenda of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, delaying progress on the legislation.
MK Boaz Bismuth (Likud) has been working on a new outline of the bill since he became committee chair in July. His appointment followed the ousting of MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud), who had also been developing a draft bill to enforce haredi conscription.
United Torah Judaism and Shas resigned from the government in July following the fallout over negotiations on mandatory army service for haredim, further complicating efforts to advance the legislation.
Various critics and politicians have said that Bismuth’s new bill outline fails to enforce haredi conscription, as the legislation is being developed in coordination with the haredi parties.
However, the developments in the bill have still caused more radical members of the haredi community to take to the violent demonstrations, calling for no conscription to the IDF whatsoever.