Deri launches attack: “It’s all because of the evil attorney general and the High Court that is persecuting the world of Torah”

A day after the Basic Law on Torah Study passed in the Knesset, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri addressed the circumstances that led to the law’s enactment and sharply attacked its opponents. Deri also said, “We do not need proof of what soldiers are, in our Sephardic community there is no one in whose family there is not a soldier.”

Watch the full remarks (Haredim) Deri spoke at an event about the Basic Law on Torah Study, which passed last night, Wednesday, in the Knesset, and said that “it is like legislating a law on circumcision,” and that “it is all because of the evil attorney general and the ‘supreme’ High Court justices who are persecuting the world of Torah.” Deri attacked the law’s opponents and said, “The Basic Law on Torah Study that we passed yesterday says that Torah learners make a significant contribution to the people of Israel. Isn’t that something simple? Isn’t that something obvious?”

Deri added and asked, “We never dreamed that we would need to legislate this, it is like legislating a law on circumcision. It is such a simple thing. What is the whole existence of ours in this country if not because of the Torah? What held the people of Israel together? Every child understands that.” Deri addressed criticism against him for visiting the detained boys in prison and said, “There were those who attacked me, how dare I go visit the ‘draft evaders’? May God have mercy on them! ‘Afra lefumaya’ (dust to their mouths). Torah learners, who give up their lives for Torah study, are ‘draft evaders’? It is all because of the evil attorney general and the High Court justices who are persecuting the world of Torah,” Deri charged sharply.

Deri also addressed claims that Shas neglects soldiers and said, “We do not need proof of what soldiers are. How much we pray for them. In our Sephardic community there is no one who does not have a soldier in his family. Our movement, Shas, is number 3 or 4, if I am not mistaken, in the double envelopes.”

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Deri said, “When I visited the detainees this week in military prison, I saw the staff of soldiers there, I do not need to guess what they vote for. They are all God-fearing, all Sephardic, lovers of Torah, respectful of the Torah. You can see it on them.”

Deri sharply attacked the opponents of the law and said, “I am astonished at those who wear a kippah on their heads, who are leading the sanctions and the persecution against the world of Torah, may God have mercy! It is impossible to understand this. There is no explanation for it. How do they not understand what Torah learners are? I am not astonished by the secular, they do not know what Torah is.”

“And therefore,” Deri added, “yesterday we had to make this protest, we passed the Basic Law on Torah Study, and בעזרת השם, we will pass it in the first reading, and the second, and the third as well.”

Deri also said that the arrests of Torah learners are “a great indictment against the people of Israel.” According to him, “When we are surrounded by enemies, when the Iranians and Hezbollah think all day about how to destroy the people of Israel. We need many merits. May we merit stopping all this drift. How many miracles we see, and unfortunately there are those who do not appreciate Torah learners and persecute them.”