From the Liveblog of
Sunday, February 15, 2026
Deri demands cops remove Bennett from Bnei Brak after riots; ex-PM retorts: Who’s asking him?
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam 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"
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett visited Bnei Brak following the mob attack against two female IDF servicewomen, declaring that this afternoon’s violence was “what happens when people sense that draft evasion is winning.”
“This didn’t happen in a vacuum; there is an address for this behavior. Netanyahu and the Haredi parties, what did you think would happen? You turned a blind eye to the cries of ‘We will die rather than enlist.’ What did you think would happen? What did you think would happen when you ignored the violence directed at Haredi soldiers who do enlist?” Bennett asked.
In response, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri calls on police to “immediately issue a restraining order” to remove Bennett from the city, although there is unlikely to be any legal basis for his demand. “This inciter and instigator arrived in the city with the aim of inflaming passions and exploiting this painful situation to gain votes for himself. This despicable man, who does not care about anything — is the last person who should be at the scene,” Deri declares in a statement.
In response, Bennett says: “I’m not sure who’s asking him.”
בני ברק, עכשיו.
נתניהו והחרדים העלימו עין מקריאות "נמות ולא נתגייס״ ועודדו השתמטות ממוסדת.
ככה זה נראה כשההשתמטות מנצחת. pic.twitter.com/KuB1D5whoj— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) February 15, 2026
He charges that “the problem is not Deri, who has gotten used to being the owner of the country, but Netanyahu, who sold it to him.”
“When Deri calls on healthy young Haredi men not to dare enlist to help IDF soldiers, Netanyahu is silent, supportive, and promotes a conscription law that abandons our soldiers,” Bennett declares, prompting Deri to accuse the former premier of selling out Israel to Arab politician Mansour Abbas “in exchange for the prime minister’s seat.”
The Naftali Bennett-Yair Lapid government, which was in office from 2021 to 2022, made history by including the Islamist Ra’am party, led by Abbas, in its diverse coalition of right-wing, centrist and left-wing parties.
“Your cynical use of IDF soldiers and bereaved families is no less grave than your arrival in Bnei Brak to profit from the rifts you created. It seems there is no rock bottom you haven’t reached,” Deri adds.
Deputy Minister Yisrael Eichler (United Torah Judaism) also appears to call on police to remove Bennett.
In a statement, the Haredi politician warns against what he describes as “indiscriminate governmental violence that harms the innocent.”
“This ‘revenge campaign’ in the city of Bnei Brak endangers the lives of innocent bystanders, including infants, the elderly, and small children,” he says, in an apparent reference to IDF enforcement efforts against draft evaders.
“We call upon the national security minister, police commissioner and [police] commanders not to carry out illegal orders from politicians and jurists who constantly incite,” Eichler continues. “Furthermore, inciters who are enemies of the Haredim, who arrive on the scene specifically to agitate the atmosphere, must be kept away. Their entire goal is to deteriorate the city into the danger of bloodshed, as they long for a civil war within the State of Israel.”
The Times of Israel Community.