Haredi MKs say deadly Jerusalem ramming of protesters a result of incitement

MK Meir Porush of UTJ’s Agudat Yisrael blames this evening’s ramming incident in which a young anti-conscription demonstrator was killed on what he describes as anti-Haredi incitement.

“The situation in which a teenager who came to participate in a protest against the draft decree was killed and perhaps even murdered is extremely serious,” he says.

“It is impossible to ignore the fact that more than once during demonstrations by the ultra-Orthodox public, there is a public atmosphere that it is permissible to harm the demonstrators. The situation in which incitement is rampant against the ultra-Orthodox public is causing Jews to fear for their safety in the Land of Israel. I call on all public leaders to call for an end to the harm and incitement against the ultra-Orthodox public.”

Fellow Agudat Yisrael MK Yisrael Eichler also blames “incitement” by the press, judiciary and legislators.

“The brutal murder tonight of a Haredi teenager dragged under a bus in Jerusalem is a direct result of wild and antisemitic incitement against the Haredim, in the media, the legal system and even in the Knesset,” the Hasidic lawmaker says in a statement.

“We have warned again and again that this incitement… will end in bloodshed. And now it has happened. I hope this is not just the beginning. We demand an immediate end to the wild incitement against the Haredim. Does blood need to be spilled in the streets so that the inciters… understand that words kill and that their hands are stained with the blood of the victims of the civil war they have declared?”