MK Porush Demands Urgent Hearing Over Police Violence Against Haredi Protesters

MK Meir Porush, a member of the National Security Committee, sent a letter on Wednesday to committee chairman Tzvika Fogel demanding an immediate hearing after police dispersed a Haredi protest on Route 4. The protest, organized by the Jerusalem Faction, ended with eight people injured.

In the letter, Porush accused police of using brutal force and selective enforcement. He said that during left-wing protests, police show consistent “containment” and patience toward people who block major roads and disrupt daily life, but that this approach disappears when the protesters are Haredim. “There is no containment, no patience and no attempt to understand,” he wrote.

Porush said the morning’s events marked a dangerous escalation. He described what happened as “extreme and unprecedented brutality” and not merely a road clearing operation, but an effort to intimidate protesters. He cited footage he said showed stun grenades fired directly at people sitting on the road, baton blows and aggressive dragging, adding that wounded, bruised and bleeding protesters were seen on the asphalt.

He also called for personal accountability from the police command. “The police conduct this morning does not fit a police force in a state that claims to be a democracy,” he wrote, comparing the dispersal to actions he associated with Turkey and Iran. Porush said the national police commissioner and any officer or commander involved should “go home today.” He wants the committee to summon police commanders to explain the force used and what he called a selective enforcement system based on the identity of the protesters.