From the Liveblog of
Monday, June 1, 2026
Yair Golan says PM, Ben Gvir to blame for Haredi attack on Beit Shemesh police station
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"
The Democrats chairman Yair Golan blames Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for last night’s violent incident in Beit Shemesh in which an ultra-Orthodox mob broke into the city’s police station and set a fire following the arrest of a Haredi draft evader.
“The violence directed last night against the police station in Beit Shemesh is the consequence of the draft evasion law. When Netanyahu and Ben Gvir turn refusal to serve into a pillar of their coalition, the message to the streets is clear — draft dodgers matter more than police officers,” declares Golan.
“The assault on police officers over the arrest of a draft evader is not a loss of control, it is the violent enforcement of a political agreement. Ben Gvir, a minister whose concept of governance exists only on TikTok, is simply looking the other way and abandoning his own police officers. For him, and for Netanyahu, Israel Police officers are pawns that can be sacrificed in order to not upset ultra-Orthodox political wheeler-dealers,” he says.
“The rioters understand that they have political backing and that attacking and assaulting those in uniform is permissible.”
The incident occurred less than a day after police’s Chief Rabbi Commander Rami Brachyahu told Radio Kol Barama that the force will no longer arrest Haredi draft evaders who come to police stations to file complaints.
Beit Shemesh Mayor Shmuel Greenberg did not release a statement following the violence. Asked for comment, a spokesperson for the municipality tells The Times of Israel that “for now, there is no official comment from the mayor.”
Last week, MK Moshe Gafni, the leader of Greenberg’s Degel HaTorah party, sent a letter instructing local party representatives on regional councils across the country to halt all cooperation with law enforcement.
The Times of Israel Community.