An ultra-Orthodox (haredi) rabbi cursed IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir during a Bnei Brak anti-military draft protest on Monday, claiming that the army “educates for the most severe offenses in the Torah.”
"The cursed chief of staff, may his name and memory be erased, sent a soldier to prison because he put a Messiah note,” Rabbi Aryeh Yazdi told protesters in the central Israeli city.
He also claimed that Israel was an “impure country” for having an army that “educates for the most severe offenses in the Torah.”
Hundreds of haredi men participated in the protest, led by former Sephardi chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, according to a report by Ynet.
The rally followed arrests of yeshiva students who had not reported for military service, following years of exemption for full-time Torah students, added Ynet.
Defense Minister Israel Katz condemned the incitement against Zamir, warning that “Red lines must not be crossed.”
Members of Shas present at rally
Members of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party were also present at the rally, including MKs Yoav Ben-Tzur, Michael Malchieli, and Yonatan Mashriki.
Yosef, a member of the political party’s Council of Torah Sages, claimed during the protest that Israel “wins wars not because of the Iron Dome, but because of the Torah, because of the young men and the scholars."
“When they take a yeshiva student shamefully to prison, it is a disgrace to the honor of Torah. That is why we gathered,” he added, according to Ynet’s report. “When soldiers are killed, it is because of the decrees imposed on those who study Torah, instead of giving them all the silver and gold.”
Parties attempt to advance bills to protect draft evaders
Shas has, alongside Haredi party United Torah Judaism (UTJ), attempted to advance a series of bills in the Knesset that critics argue would support draft evaders.
Members of both parties visited arrested evaders held in military prison earlier this month, expressing support and calling for their release.
Additionally, Rabbi of the Ramat Aharon neighborhood in Bnei Brak, Shabtai Levy, claimed that “the reason we are not defeating Hamas and Hezbollah is because when there is no respect for Torah, this is what happens.”
Another rabbi, Levi Pinchasi, compared the IDF to Haman. “Haman did not succeed, and neither will they,” he told the crowd, assuring that the military does not want haredim in the army. “One of their senior commanders said in court, ‘We do not need them, we only want to secularize them,’” Ynet cited him as claiming.
Leaflets with the text “Sephardi yeshiva students are not abandoned” written on them were distributed at the protest, according to Ynet. They also included a phone number for reporting arrests of draft dodgers.