Likud minister likens arrest of Haredi draft dodgers to Spanish Inquisition

Culture Minister Miki Zohar of the Likud party compares the plight of ultra-Orthodox Israelis to that of Jews in the Spanish Inquisition, a day after 42 Haredi draft dodgers were detained at Ben Gurion Airport.

“This thing reminds [me of] the difficult days of the Inquisition… where Jews studying Torah were hunted down to be killed,” he says in an interview on the Haredi Kol Berama radio. “I don’t like this thing.”

The Spanish Inquisition, which began in 1478 and lasted for some 350 years, saw the death of thousands of Jews who refused to convert to Christianity and the expulsion of many more.

Of the 42 Haredi draft dodgers arrested yesterday, 40 were released after signing affidavits expressing their willingness to draft and received suspended jail sentences. The IDF said two others, “who had been evading military service for an extended period of more than 540 days,” were immediately sent to a military prison upon being detained at the airport.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also came out against the detention of the draft dodgers, telling Kol Berama that “these arrests are a deliberate attempt to harm the process of drafting Haredim without coercion.”