Extremists in Edah Haredit Reportedly Eye Ritual Targeting Attorney General

Extremists within the Edah Haredit are planning a "Pulsa diNura" ritual against Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, according to a report by Yaki Herschkovitz in Israel Hayom. The same group, the report said, led last week’s intrusion into the yard of Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg’s home and is now identifying a new target.

The plan is not yet final and still needs approval from the movement’s spiritual leadership. A source inside Edah Haredit said such a move would require formal rabbinical authorization, but warned, "It is not far from that at all." The article noted that Pulsa diNura is a curse and excommunication ritual intended to bring about a person’s death, performed at midnight by a quorum of black-clad kabbalists and scholars with shofar blasts and candle lighting.

The background to the threat is last Wednesday’s violent attack on Sohlberg’s home in Alon Shvut. Rioters smashed his car windows and damaged flower pots at the entrance to the house, and dozens of suspects were arrested. In response, judicial institutions held solidarity gatherings at courts across Israel on Sunday morning.

Yaron Levi, head of the Israel Judges’ Representative Body, said judges stand in full support of Sohlberg and his family and called on all branches of government, law enforcement, and Israeli society to unequivocally condemn any attempt to harm judges or pressure them because of their role. The Prosecutors’ Organization, representing more than 1,100 public-sector prosecutors, also stood outside courts in solidarity. Its chair, attorney Orit Koren, said, "At this time, we will all leave the courtrooms and stand outside the courthouse in solidarity and support for the judiciary and the rule of law. There must be no acceptance whatsoever of violence against judges or legal service workers because of any public dispute."