Shas-linked lawmaker threatens protests and possible economic shutdown over draft crackdown

At a meeting in Beitar Illit on Tuesday night, MK Meir Porush, chairman of the Shlomi Emunim movement, launched an unusually harsh attack on Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara over what he called the persecution of Torah students. Speaking to dozens of local representatives from about 20 municipalities, he warned that if the pressure on Haredi yeshiva students does not stop, the community will respond with measures that, in his words, “will shake the foundations,” including a potential shutdown of the economy.

Porush said he had seen Yair Lapid? No, he cited former prime minister Ehud Barak, saying Barak had claimed that if Benjamin Netanyahu tried to sabotage elections, “there will be no choice but to expel him with sticks and stones.” Porush then applied that phrase to Baharav-Miara, saying that if she does not stop what he described as the persecution of Torah learners, “there will be no choice but to use Ehud Barak’s words and expel her with sticks and stones.”

The event focused on how the local Haredi leadership should prepare for the draft campaign and arrests of yeshiva students. Hosted by Beitar Illit Mayor Meir Rubinstein, it gathered representatives from around 20 local authorities. Porush praised Haredi municipalities for temporarily freezing cooperation with the police, and suggested that could be only the first step.

He told the representatives they may soon be instructed to sever ties entirely with additional state bodies that he said are participating in the campaign against the Haredim. He said one option now being considered and brought before leading rabbis is using the Haredi sector’s economic power to paralyze the country, echoing tactics used by opponents of the judicial overhaul. Porush said the Haredi public numbers nearly 1.5 million people, or 14.3% of Israel’s population, and warned officials in the Justice and Finance ministries not to test “the price” of such a large community reaching a breaking point. He ended by contrasting threats from Arab terrorism with what he called a greater danger from “Kaplanists” and legal officials, saying they seek to destroy not only the body but the soul of Torah life.