Minister Amsalem: “Solberg Is More Stupid Than Antisemitic”

Ahead of the vote on the Basic Law: Torah Study, Amsalem launched an attack on the attorney general and Supreme Court justices on Kan Reshet Bet: “They are acting in an antisemitic way.” He also said of Solberg: “He is cooperating with forces that want to erase Judaism.” The ministers decided the bill’s wording would be changed to remove a comparison to IDF servicemembers.

Against the backdrop of the Basic Law: Torah Study proposal, which is up for a preliminary reading vote in the Knesset plenum today, Minister Dudi Amsalem (Likud) attacked Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, her deputy Gil Limon, and Justice Noam Solberg, the deputy president of the Supreme Court. In an interview on “Kalman-Lieberman” on Kan Reshet Bet, Amsalem said that the attorney general and her deputy “are acting in an antisemitic way.” He said, “The value of Torah study has become a concept used to persecute people. Anyone who persecutes Torah learners is antisemitic. From Miara through Limon to the Supreme Court.”

Referring to Deputy President of the Supreme Court Justice Solberg, outside whose home violent protests took place last week, Minister Amsalem said, “I think he is more stupid than antisemitic. He is cooperating with forces that want to erase the foundations of Judaism in Israel, and he does not understand it. When I ask him about hesder yeshivas that serve for a year and a half, and about the fact that I served three years... why not reduce the hesder as well.”

As noted, the Basic Law: Torah Study will come up for a vote today, after agreements were reached in the ministerial committee for legislation, according to which the wording will later be changed so that it will not include a comparison between Torah learners and IDF servicemembers. The wording change follows demands by Knesset members from Likud and the Religious Zionism party.