At a dramatic meeting on Tuesday in Beit Shemesh, Shlomi Emunim chairman and Knesset member Meir Porush issued a severe warning to the attorney general over the arrest of yeshiva students. Addressing dozens of local representatives from across Israel, he said that if she does not stop what he called the persecution of Torah learners, there may be no choice but to use Ehud Barak’s words and “expel her with sticks and stones.”
The gathering, hosted by Beitar Illit Mayor Meir Rubinstein, was devoted to planning broad protest steps against what Porush described as attacks on Torah study. He told the attendees they had been summoned to prepare for measures that would “shake the foundations.” Porush praised Rubinstein’s move to halt cooperation between ultra-Orthodox local authorities and the police, saying the united action had shown its power and had already forced senior police officers to reconsider their conduct.
Porush said he was far from satisfied with the current situation, calling the arrest of people for studying Torah a disgrace and a stain. He said the struggle could become a “battle for our existence as a people of the Torah,” and suggested that future steps might include cutting off cooperation with other state bodies and even taking economic measures that would disrupt the country.
He also linked the fight to the size of the ultra-Orthodox public, citing Central Bureau of Statistics estimates that Israel’s Haredi population in 2025 stands at about 1,450,000, or 14.3 percent of the population. According to Porush, the cost of confronting “a million and a half people” who have reached their limit could be enormous. He ended by saying that while Arabs threaten physical harm, “Kaplanists” and legal officials are, in his words, trying to destroy the soul of the Jewish people.
