Haredi MK Porush warns conscription of yeshiva students could lead to 'civil war'

Former cabinet minister sets up tent outside Justice Ministry to protest arrests of draft evaders. Liberman calls on ultra-Orthodox to ‘join the effort to defeat the enemy’

By Sam Sokol 10 August 2025, 7:39 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

United Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush warned on Sunday that the conflict over ultra-Orthodox enlistment could escalate into “civil war” if legislation is not passed regulating military service exemptions for yeshiva students.

Speaking with the Haredi news site Kikar HaShabbat from a protest tent he pitched outside the Justice Ministry last Thursday, the former Jerusalem affairs minister declared that “a civil war is developing between Haredim and secular” Israelis and warned against mass arrests of draft evaders.

“You can’t go to war with some 1.25 million ultra-Orthodox citizens who want to live here in a certain way,” he said, arguing that unless action is taken now to deal with the issue, “it will develop and grow and no one will be able to stop it.”

“If young men get arrested it will definitely escalate into a conflict… There would definitely be a terrible fight here,” he insisted.

In response, Yisrael Beytenu party chairman Avigdor Liberman tweeted that “instead of threatening civil war, [the Haredim should] join the effort to defeat the enemy.”

Porush set up shop outside the Justice Ministry late last week to protest the arrest of yeshiva students who evaded military draft orders, declaring in a statement that he intended to move his office’s activities to a spot outside the ministry and to forgo food for nine hours a day.

Yisrael Beytenu party chairman MK Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on March 31, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Haredi politician launched his partial hunger strike in response to increased government efforts to send out and enforce draft orders for Haredi men which have led to the arrest of several yeshiva students.

Haredi leaders say military service is a threat to their way of life and would keep ultra-Orthodox men from studying Torah.

Many Haredim blame Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara for the rise in arrests, saying she is pushing the IDF to crack down on evasion.

Porush’s tent was visited on Thursday by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who told him that Baharav-Miara was motivated by a desire to “cause conflict between us,” rather than by a sincere wish to conscript Haredim.

Karhi said the attorney general was trying to harm Torah students, “and I am sure that we will defeat” these efforts, in a video shared by Arutz Sheva reporter Hezki Baruch.

Declaring ‘war’

Responding to the increased enforcement last week, Rabbi Dov Lando, one of the most prominent rabbinic leaders of the so-called “Lithuanian” stream of ultra-Orthodoxy last week accused the government of waging war on the Haredi community, saying that “Haredi Judaism will embark on a global struggle like never before.”

Last Thursday morning, the flagship newspapers of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties declared “war” on efforts to enforce draft orders. This included HaMevaser, a paper affiliated with Porush.

Rabbi Dov Lando addresses an anti-enlistment conference in Bnei Brak, July 31, 2025. (Daniel Nafusi)

Following the pronouncements, thousands of Haredim demonstrated in the streets and Porush set up his protest tent outside the Justice Ministry.

“I cannot sit comfortably in my office when the military is roaming around at night and arresting yeshiva students. It is my duty as a public representative to express our protest against the measures demanded by the attorney general. If the persecution of Torah students does not stop, it will lead to disaster for the people of Israel,” Porush declared.

Porush is a member of the Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction which, together with the “Lithuanian” Degel HaTorah, makes up the larger United Torah Judaism party.

A Times of Israel investigation earlier this year found that a phone hotline linked to Porush, then the Jerusalem affairs minister, had been advising yeshiva students to ignore draft orders and lie to the Israel Defense Forces.

UTJ and fellow Haredi party Shas are at the forefront of a fight to pass legislation legalizing the de facto military draft exemptions ultra-Orthodox men have enjoyed for decades. After that arrangement was struck down by the High Court of Justice last year, the army began sending out and enforcing draft orders while, in tandem, a battle began in the Knesset over how to regulate Haredi enlistment.

Police use a water canon to disperse ultra-Orthodox demonstrators as they protest military enlistment orders and the arrest of yeshiva students who avoided the orders, during a rally in Jerusalem on August 7, 2025. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

Last month, UTJ quit the coalition, after being presented with a copy of a proposed enlistment bill prepared by Yuli Edelstein, then the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which, it argued, had violated the terms of a supposed compromise reached in June. They were quickly followed by Shas, which, while quitting the government, has remained part of the coalition.

The ruling Likud party then ousted Edelstein, replacing him with MK Boaz Bismuth, who is expected to seek an arrangement that will satisfy Haredi parties.

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18 to 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits, due to the strain on standing and reserve forces during the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges. Around 2,700 Haredim in total joined the army over the past year.