Shas MK says deaths of Haredi soldiers expose Lapid’s ‘libel’ in accusing ultra-Orthodox of sending other people’s children to die

Shas MK Erez Malul slams Opposition Leader Yair Lapid after four members of the IDF’s ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion were killed overnight in Gaza, arguing that their deaths disprove Lapid’s claim that the Haredim are only willing to send other people’s children to fight and die.

“This is a difficult morning for the people of Israel. Only hours have passed since MK Yair Lapid’s harsh inflammatory remarks…in which he slammed Shas Chairman Rabbi Aryeh Deri as if he were sending out reserve call-up orders knowing that Haredim would not die,” Malul says.

“Tonight the magnitude of the lie and the libel became clear — five fighters fell in battle in the Gaza Strip, four of them Haredi fighters from the Netzah Yehuda battalion. There is no limit and no bottom that Lapid will not tread in a desperate attempt to stop his party’s collapse in the polls. Mr. MK Lapid, are you satisfied now?”

Malul tells The Times of Israel that he knows the families of some of those killed and is personally pained by their deaths.

Speaking with reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset on Monday, Lapid railed against Haredi efforts to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from military service, stating that Deri and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee member Yaakov Asher (United Torah Judaism) “have no problem sending [reserve] soldiers to go fight and die on one condition: that their own children not die.”

In response, Deri claimed in a statement that “the percentage of soldiers who serve and risk their lives among Shas voters is higher than among your party’s voters.”

“Stop pointing an accusing finger at an entire community that contributes to the country with dedication… Your words are serious and false incitement,” Deri said, calling on Lapid to retract his “inflammatory slur.”