Report: Top Haredi rabbi met Satmar billionaire to discuss petitioning ICC against draft dodger arrests

By Sam Sokol 7 August 2026, 3:07 pm

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Sam 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"

Grand Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter of the Gur Hassidic Dynasty attends the Siyum HaShas, a celebration marking the completion of the Daf Yomi, a seven-and-a-half-year cycle of studying the Talmud, at the Jerusalem Arena Stadium, January 2, 2019. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, leader of the Gur Hasidic sect, met with an American billionaire from the rival anti-Zionist Satmar movement to discuss creating an organization aimed at petitioning the United States Congress, the International Criminal Court and other foreign bodies against Israeli efforts to conscript previously exempt ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.

According to Channel 13, which broke the news last night, Alter and Yoeli Landau compared Israel to North Korea and are planning on spending millions of dollars on the effort. It is unclear if Landau was acting on behalf of the Satmar community or its leader.

Gur is the largest and most influential Hasidic sect in Israel, with its rabbi controlling hundreds of millions of shekels in assets. United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf, a member of the Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction, is a member of the group.

In 2024, politicians from across the political spectrum, including then-defense minister Yoav Gallant, Blue and White party chief Benny Gantz and Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben Gvir, attended the wedding of Gur powerbroker Motti Babchik’s daughter, drawing criticism from the left.

Haredi demonstrators against the draft have held up signs appealing to US President Donald Trump to intervene and “save us” at multiple demonstrations.

In May, Agudat Yisrael MK Meir Porush sent a letter to US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, asking him to pressure Israeli authorities against arresting ultra-Orthodox draft evaders.