Shas and UTJ file police complaint over incitement by Jerusalem Faction leader

Ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ) file a complaint with the Israel Police against Zvi Roth, a senior official in the hardline Haredi Jerusalem Faction, accusing him of incitement to murder and calls for violence against public representatives.

According to the complaint, Roth used the faction’s telephone hotlines, which connect to thousands of citizens, to make extremist statements, including comparisons between Haredi leaders and Nazis, and even encouragement to harm them directly.

“They remind me very much of the Germans in World War II… these hands are stained with the blood of Jews,” Roth said of Shas and UTJ lawmakers.

“The Jews in the extermination camps said to themselves: If I had the chance — I would now slaughter those cursed Germans, in accordance with the principle of ‘If someone comes to kill you, rise and kill him first,” he added.

In their complaint, the two parties say, “This is serious and shocking incitement that permits the blood of Haredi representatives. Only recently, we saw how this kind of incitement led to a grave lynching attempt, attacks and break-ins at the homes of Shas chairman Rabbi Aryeh Deri, UTJ chairman Rabbi Moshe Gafni, MK Rabbi Yoav Ben-Tzur, MK Rabbi Yinon Azulai, MK Rabbi Uri Maklev, and MK Rabbi Ya’akov Asher.”

The ministers were reported to have been attacked in separate incidents over their cooperation in advancing legislation to regulate military conscription for yeshiva students, even though that legislation is expected to exempt most Haredim.

“We demand that law enforcement authorities act with the full force of the law against the sources of this incitement and violence before blood is shed here,” Shas and UTJ add.