From the Liveblog of
Friday, October 16, 2026
New UTJ candidate: Situation of Haredim in Israel today is ‘close to what was in the Holocaust’
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A new candidate for the United Torah Judaism party is quoted by Hebrew media as likening the current situation of the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel to Jews during the Holocaust, drawing condemnation.
Eliakim Stark, No. 6 on UTJ’s list — which has consistently polled at at least 8 seats ahead of the October 27 election — is filmed at an election event in Beit Shemesh talking about the woes of many young Haredi men who cannot fly abroad to meet women as part of the community’s shidduch matchmaking system, since they are under military draft orders and would be arrested at the airport.
“When one wants to do a shidduch abroad, [the bride’s family] needs to come to Israel because he can’t [fly abroad],” Stark says.
“I have taken upon myself not to talk about the Holocaust in the first years, but… I have no other definition. Our situation is close to what was in the Holocaust… It reminds me of stories from our grandparents,” he says.
At another point during the event, Stark slams Central Elections Committee Chairman and Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg, alleging that his worldview is “bash the Haredim to show you’re a man, to show you’re successful.”
He also claims that in Israel, “it is better to be a terrorist — to kill entire families, and then your wife is protected, they won’t take her house, daycare, social security — than to be a Haredi Jew.”
Stark, 34, belongs to the Belz Hasidic group. Born in Belgium, he has lived in Jerusalem for years and served as a behind-the-scenes adviser and political activist seen as close to the community leaders and also to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s circle.
He will replace the Belz sect’s longtime political representative in UTJ, Yisrael Eichler.
At the same event, Eichler charges: “I estimate that this is the last time they let Haredim vote in the election.”
The remarks are slammed by opposition members, as well as by Ofer Winter, the head of the new right-wing People of Israel party that has pledged to join the pro-Netanyahu bloc but has also vowed to pass a law to draft ultra-Orthodox men to the military. Netanyahu has launched a campaign against Winter, claiming he will join forces with the opposition.
“The shocking remark by soon-to-be MK Eliakim Stark is a disgrace to any Israeli and any Jew,” Winter says. “It doesn’t come in a vacuum, but against the backdrop of the silence of the prime minister and senior government officials in the face of shocking calls against the IDF in the Jerusalem Faction protests.”
The Jerusalem Faction is an extremist ultra-Orthodox sect that has been holding regular rallies and riots against military draft for Haredim and against the occasional arrests of draft dodgers.
Winter says the remarks show why the next coalition must not rely on UTJ, and urges Haredi leaders and well as the premier and ministers to denounce them.
Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman of the opposition says: “Horrific. A representative for UTJ, without whom Bibi doesn’t have a government, explains that in Israel, it’s ‘better to be a terrorist.’ And if that’s not enough, he compared the situation of the draft dodgers to Jews in the Holocaust.”
The Times of Israel Community.