Haredi parties, author of controversial enlistment law blast AG for opposing legislation

Haredi politicians and the Likud lawmaker behind the coalition’s controversial Haredi draft law panned Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara over her legal opinion objecting to the legislation, which she says will discourage enlistment and remove current legal tools for effective sanctions on draft dodgers.

Boaz Bismuth, the head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, who wrote up the bill, calls the legal opinion an attempt to divert public attention from her alleged involvement in a scandal involving a leak by the former military advocate general of a video of alleged abuse of a Palestinian detainee by IDF soldiers.

“Nice try, but not this time,” Bismuth says.

The Shas party calls Baharav-Miara’s legal opinion “a transparent and embarrassing trick,” arguing that it is an attempt “to deal a blow to the Torah world to divert attention from one of the biggest scandals in the state’s history.”

“Her legal opinion is detached and doesn’t reflect the position of the army,” Shas claims. “The blatant political tone in her letter reveals her goal of toppling the right-wing government and preventing her dismissal.”

Baharav-Miara has consistently clashed with the current government, leading the cabinet to fire her — a move frozen by the High Court of Justice.

MK Moshe Gafni, the leader of the Degal HaTorah faction of the ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism, argues that the attorney general is voicing her opinion on a bill that isn’t yet finalized, out of a “clear goal to prevent Torah studies” and make sure the state doesn’t fund Haredi yeshivas.

“Throughout the history of the Jewish people, there were always those who fought against the holy Torah and those who study it, and the Torah is continuing to exist and lead the Jewish people while those who fought against it vanished in the dust of history,” he says.