From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, January 7, 2026
Likud minister blames opposition for Haredi teen killed at anti-draft protest
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"
Culture Minister Miki Zohar (Likud) blames the opposition for the death of 14-year old Yosef Eisenthal, an ultra-Orthodox boy who was fatally run over by a bus driver during an anti-conscription demonstration in Jerusalem last night.
“Your incitement against the Haredi public is what brought this about,” Zohar yells from the Knesset rostrum.
“Shame on you. All day long you portray them as some kind of enemies of the people. It is a community that is dear, important and beneficial to Israeli society. Stop attacking it from morning to night, to the point where you have turned it into an enemy,” he declares, generating shocked outrage among opposition MKs.
Eisenthal was killed and three other teens were injured at an intersection in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Romema when a bus rammed into Haredi protesters, as tens of thousands of people attended an anti-conscription demonstration.
The Times of Israel Community.