From the Liveblog of
Sunday, August 10, 2025
UTJ lawmaker: A ‘civil war’ is brewing between Haredi and secular Israelis over IDF draft
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam 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"
United Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush warns that the conflict over ultra-Orthodox enlistment could escalate into a civil war if legislation is not passed regulating military service exemptions for yeshiva students.
Speaking with the Haredi news site Kikar HaShabbat from a protest tent he pitched outside the Justice Ministry, the former Jerusalem affairs minister declares that “a civil war is developing between Haredim and secular” Israelis and warns against mass arrests of draft evaders.
“You can’t go to war with about a million and a quarter ultra-Orthodox citizens who want to live here in a certain way,” he says, arguing that unless action is taken now to deal with the issue “it will develop and grow and no one will be able to stop it.”
“If young men get arrested it will definitely escalate into a conflict… there would definitely be a terrible fight here,” he says.
היום השלישי לשביתת הרעב: ח״כ מאיר פרוש בלשכת המחאה מחוץ למשרד המשפטים pic.twitter.com/XM1TJ5m9Bl
— אבי מוסקוב Avi moskoff (@AviMoskov) August 10, 2025
In response, Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman tweets: “Instead of threatening civil war, join the effort to defeat the enemy.”
Porush set up shop outside the Justice Ministry late last week to protest the arrest of yeshiva students who evaded military draft orders, declaring in a statement that he intended to move his office’s activities to a spot outside the ministry and to forgo food for nine hours a day.
Meanwhile Moshe Hillel Hirsch, the head of the Slabodka Yeshiva in Bnei Brak and a leading ultra-Orthodox rabbi, goes to the military prison in Beit Lid to visit brothers Rafael and Baruch Yitzhakov — yeshiva students from Tel Aviv who were arrested after failing to report to the draft office.
He is accompanied by members of the Shas party’s ruling Council of Torah Sages, including Rabbi Moshe Maya. The rabbis were initially blocked from entering the prison but were eventually allowed inside.
Prior to visiting the prison, Hirsch met with Rabbi Dov Lando, the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah party at his home in Bnei Brak. According to a spokesman for Lando, during their discussion Hirsch “suggested several additional protest steps in the struggle for the Torah world” and these ideas “were forwarded for in-depth discussion and professional examination.”
According to the ultra-Orthodox Behadrei Haredim news site, Haredi leaders are currently discussing the possibility of launching protests to shut down Ben Gurion Airport this week.
Speaking with The Times of Israel last night, a source with knowledge of the senior rabbis’ thinking said that they are considering holding demonstrations outside of Israeli embassies worldwide.
The Times of Israel Community.