Yelling ‘murderers,’ ultra-Orthodox mob attacks 2 senior IDF officers in Bnei Brak
Head of Training Command and head of Personnel Management Division waylaid by dozens who assault their vehicle following meeting with rabbi on drafting Haredi men
Politicians from both the coalition and opposition on Tuesday condemned a mob attack on two senior Israel Defense Forces officers in Bnei Brak the night before, declaring that such actions do not represent Jewish or Israeli values.
Maj. Gen. David Zini, head of the Training Command and General Staff Corps, and Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division, were in the majority-ultra-Orthodox city for a meeting over the potential establishment of a tailored Haredi brigade in the army, as the military moves to draft some ultra-Orthodox youth.
The officers held talks in the Tel Aviv suburb with Rabbi David Leybel, a proponent of programs that support members of the ultra-Orthodox community entering the workforce.
Word of the pair’s presence in the area apparently spread and, as they left the meeting, they were set upon by dozens of ultra-Orthodox rioters who surrounded their car and shouted “murderer” and other epithets at them.
The rioters were apparently members of the so-called Jerusalem Faction, an extremist ultra-Orthodox protest group.
Bottles and other objects were thrown at the officers’ vehicle. The two were eventually escorted from the area by police.
בני ברק: מפקד פיקוד ההכשרות בצה"ל, אלוף דוד זיני, ורח"ט תומכ"א תא"ל שי טייב, הותקפו אמש על ידי עשרות חרדים קיצונים שחסמו את רכבם, זרקו עליהם בקבוקים וקראו לעברם "רוצח". האירוע התרחש בסיום פגישה שהשניים קיימו עם הרב דוד לייבל שפועל בימים האחרונים להקמת החטיבה החרדית בצה"ל
בכירי… pic.twitter.com/hTnSwdXcZE
— איתי בלומנטל ???????? Itay Blumental (@ItayBlumental) July 16, 2024
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party condemned the incident, saying in a statement the protesters “don’t even represent themselves. They deserve all condemnation, and we’ll have no part of it.”
Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, who chairs another Haredi party, United Torah Judaism, slammed the attack and insisted that the perpetrators “do not represent the ultra-Orthodox public and the city’s residents.”
“There is no place for acts of violence that are completely contrary to our holy Torah,” Goldknopf tweeted, quoting the proverb: “Its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement that the assault “deserves all reproach,” while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the attack “does not represent even a fraction of the ultra-Orthodox public.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called the IDF officers the “holy of holies of Israeli society” and pledged that police “will work to locate the offenders and bring them to justice.”
The Bnei Brak municipality called on police to prevent such incidents.
“The event does not reflect the spirit of the city and its image, a city of Torah life and reverence, but first and foremost a city of human dignity and humanity,” it said.
“A real Jew does not call an IDF officer a murderer,” tweeted Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman, a former defense minister and secularist opposition lawmaker.
Attacking IDF officers was “not Jewish, not Israeli and does not represent the majority of the ultra-Orthodox public,” declared ex-war cabinet minister and National Unity party chairman Benny Gantz, a former IDF chief of staff.
According to the Ynet news outlet, a member of the Jerusalem Faction saw the officers’ car and immediately began sending messages to rouse up a crowd. The outlet obtained a recorded message that was circulated in which a voice was heard urging protesters to arrive at the location.
“For us war; for the Lord salvation,” the message said.
Asher Fradi, an aide to Leybel, told Ynet that it was not the first time the two officers had held meetings with the rabbi.
He said the mob also chanted against Leybel, calling him a “murderer” too and ringing the intercom to his home.
Fradi said they quickly alerted police to what was happening but that the officers who arrived were ineffective at deterring the protesters and merely stood on the side. Only after the officers had been delayed leaving for an hour did they intervene, Fradi said.
Leybel, he said, will not be deterred and the rabbi “understands that the army is going in the right direction.”
According to Ynet, the purpose of the meeting was to agree on finding yeshivas with a high dropout rate that would consent that some of those students join the army instead.
The IDF is speaking with Haredi rabbis and yeshivas on sending hundreds of dropout students to the army in order to fill an initial draft quota of 3,000 recruits from the community, as set by the High Court of Justice, the report said.
Last month the High Court of Justice ruled that there is no legal basis for exempting ultra-Orthodox men from the military draft.
The landmark judgment, which overturned decades of draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, stated that the government must “act to enforce the Law for Military Service on yeshiva students,” compelling state agencies to take active steps to draft such men into Israel Defense Forces service.
There are currently an estimated 67,000 Haredi males who are eligible for service, although only a small percentage of them are expected to be called up this year.
At the beginning of the month, Goldknopf was himself attacked in Jerusalem by Haredi protesters angry about the potential conscription of yeshiva students into the military.
Despite footage showing demonstrators throwing stones at his car, striking the vehicle, and hurling insults as he passed by, Goldknopf told The Times of Israel that he didn’t intend to file a police complaint, adding that the attackers “don’t represent the Haredi public or the Jerusalem Faction.”
Asked at the time by a Radio Kol Chai reporter if he was worried by the violence, Goldknopf said then: “Not at all. Everyone can go their own way. If they think that is the correct path, let them continue.”
