From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Haredi minister warns Gantz conscription of Yeshiva students will lead to civil war
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"
The conscription of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students will lead to a civil war, warns Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush, a member of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism.
Responding to a letter by National Unity chairman Benny Gantz appealing to him to block the final Knesset vote of a bill altering the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee, Porush rails against last year’s High Court ruling ending service exemptions for Haredim and subsequent efforts by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to advance their enlistment into the military.
In his letter, Gantz calls on Porush to block the controversial judicial overhaul legislation, asserting that he and other members of the government were “dragging us into a civil war.”
Writing back to Gantz, Porush says that he regrets the use of such rhetoric but “since this has already become an issue in Israeli discourse, I can only agree with you and warn you that the continuation of the current conduct of the legal system will, God forbid, lead to civil war.”
“The serious conduct, which began with the High Court ruling to revoke the status of yeshiva students and continues with the orchestrated attack by the attorney general against Torah learners, yeshiva students, and kollel members, may inevitably drag us into a war of brother against brother,” he counters.
“You are mistaken in thinking that about a million people in Israel, for whom studying Torah is dearest of all, will sit in equanimity in the face of the campaign waged by the legal system in Israel against the Torah world,” Porush continues — calling on Gantz to “prevent a fratricidal war.”
“Remember, I warned you,” he adds.
At a faction meeting in December, Porush announced the establishment of a helpline that a recent Times of Israel investigation found was counseling callers to “just ignore” summonses to the IDF’s recruitment bureau. Under Israeli law, someone inciting others to evade service during wartime is liable to a prison term of 15 years.
The Times of Israel Community.