In a heated interview on the Kol Chai website’s studio program, MK Meir Porush, chairman of Shlomi Emunim, sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Religious Zionism faction, and the arrest of Torah students, as protests over Haredi conscription escalated ahead of the planned “car protest.” He said, “Israel is the only country in the world that arrests Torah learners,” and added that those who study Torah are being told, “You study Torah? Sit in prison,” calling it a “danger” and a “censure on the Land of Israel.”
Porush attacked Religious Zionism lawmakers, saying they harm the Haredi community and that their party, which he said is barely above the electoral threshold, has no standing to lecture others. He recalled a decades-old dispute with Mizrachi and quoted the Brisker Rav as saying “Mizrachi is the worst,” arguing that such partners promise support and then hurt the ultra-Orthodox. He also said the left would eventually win over their voters if the right does not protect Haredi interests.
On the police response to last week’s protest on Route 4, Porush said he hopes the violence will not recur, warning that if it does, it would show an “obsession with hatred of Haredim.” He described images of blood and police dragging people by their clothes as “terrible” and said it was not an isolated incident.
Porush said the original coalition talks missed an opportunity to pass a law regulating Torah students’ status. He claimed he asked for a draft exemption law alongside other coalition agreements, but Netanyahu told him there were four coalition lawmakers causing trouble and that the budget would force compliance later. “Since then everything was closed in the coalition heads, and I am not there,” he said, calling it a “miss.” On Netanyahu, he said the prime minister “speaks well” and sounds sincere, but in the end it is “just a waste of time.” He added that after the election, Haredi parties will follow the Council of Torah Sages, though he said they are closer to the right than to any formal bloc because Likud did not include public transport on Shabbat or civil marriage in its platform.
