MK Yitzhak Goldknopf, leader of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Agudat Yisrael faction of the United Torah Judaism Party, revealed that he "made a mistake" and "failed" after "someone [Netanyahu and Levin] misled us," regarding the judicial reform and haredi draft bills, he said in an interview with haredi news outlet Kikar HaShabbat on Sunday.
He was asked what happened behind the scenes when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Justice Minister Yariv Levin attempted to gain support from haredi politicians for the judicial reform bill.
"I do not want to think about it," he stated, before explaining that UTJ was told to support the bill because it would allow for a "basic law of Torah study," followed by another law as an override clause. He also claimed he was told in a meeting with coalition leaders that he should "support this," as "it will be for you."
Goldknopf told Kikar HaShabbat that he wanted to leave the coalition quietly, without interfering, in order to bring about "an orderly conscription law with broad agreement," but he was "mistaken" and "saw that things were not going that way."
"I saw Netanyahu wanted to pass something" as a haredi draft bill, adding that the "blame for the law not passing is primarily on Netanyahu."
"It is definitely possible to pass a bill, it just requires will," he stated.
"We made an agreement, and in that agreement, not a single word is written about sanctions, punishments, or targets," Goldknopf clarified, stating that he will not agree to any bill that includes recruitment quotas or sanctions.
He clarified further that "In the law we want to support, there will be no quotas and no sanctions, as there is no such thing in any law in the State of Israel. Tell me another law that has sanctions? What do you want from these poor people? Until you have haredim in the country, what do you want from them? What is all of Israel watching, and all of Israel is only looking at these 15%? What do you want from them? Let them live, they don’t bother you."
The issue over haredi draft laws will remain a central issue even after any upcoming election, Goldknopf noted.
He also addressed an announcement by the IDF and Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara that there will be a wave of arrests of Yeshiva students who refuse to draft in the coming weeks.
Goldknopf says arrests of Yeshiva students who refuse to draft will not happen
"This is a decree that no one will be able to implement, no one will be able to carry out. If they want to shake the country, let them shake it. The country will not rest, it will not be quiet. There will be no quiet here, in one way or another," he stated.
"I’m not saying beatings or blood, the country won’t rest. If they want to shake the country, let them do it. You can’t harm yeshiva students, you can’t harm Torah students, you can’t harm yeshivas, you can’t carry out arrests," he continued.
Goldknopf also remains unconvinced that the IDF has the infrastructure to conscript haredi youths who are not studying. "First of all, I want to see where you send them. I don’t know what’s happening in the [IDF's haredi] Hashmonaim Brigade; they promise that those who enter as haredi will leave as haredi? I want to see how many letters I get saying it’s nonsense."
He also addressed the controversy of dancing at a wedding while an anti-Zionist song by the extremist Neturei Karta group was playing, including the lyrics "We will die and not enlist."
"No one saw me dancing; they saw dancing around me. They came to sing it around me," before implying that he simply refused to be disrespectful by telling them to stop.