Far-right minister says he doesn’t want anti-government protesters enlisting for combat duty

Far-right Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, says participants in the mass anti-government protests in Tel Aviv should not enlist as combat soldiers, claiming that they won’t rush into the fight when necessary.

“I don’t want to draft someone from Kaplan to enlist in combat [duty]” Eliyahu says at an event at a Tel Aviv high school, referring to Kaplan Street, the central artery in the city where mass protests against the government and its legislation have taken place in recent years.

“In the end, they won’t storm into battle,” he continues. “I want to change the education system, so that people will give their soul and their spirit.”

On the political right, “Kaplan” has become an epithet for anti-government activists. In a recent campaign ad from the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox Shas party depicting an argument over conscription and Torah study, one man yells at another, “You’ve begun to think like a non-Jew! Go to Kaplan!” The ad drew criticism from those who said it insulted opponents of the government as opponents of Israel and Judaism.

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who chairs the opposition B’Yachad party, slams Eliyahu’s remark, saying he must atone for it on the upcoming holiday of Yom Kippur.

“Today, Eliyahu hurt so many holy fallen soldiers and their relatives who protested at Kaplan,” he posted online. “I have personally visited dozens of such bereaved families. Eliyahu will need to go to all these families, and between the graves of our holy ones at Mount Herzl [military cemetery], and to ask forgiveness for deriding their memory.”

Eliyahu says in a subsequent video that he intended to convey that while Israel can force people to enlist, it cannot force them to eagerly rush into battle.