United Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush delivered a combative speech in the Knesset plenum Tuesday during the stormy debate over legislation freezing arrests of yeshiva students, arguing that the bill directly implements recommendations from a professional military committee and warning both the High Court and police against interfering with it.
Porush centered his argument on the findings of what is known as the Shakedy Committee, a military panel established in December 2023 by then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to examine Haredi enlistment in the wake of the October 7 massacre. He noted the committee was headed by Maj. Gen. (res.) Eliezer Shakedy and included seven senior officers, none of them political appointees, and that its recommendations, submitted in May 2024, called for preserving what it termed the core values of the Haredi world by protecting yeshiva students whose Torah study is their vocation, meaning those learning three sessions a day.
Given that background, Porush said, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir's recent letter opposing the arrest freeze legislation is deeply puzzling, since Zamir himself, then serving as the Defense Ministry's director general, was among those who helped shape the committee's work alongside then-Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. "The military's professional position, which you refuse to accept out of cheap populism, is exactly what this legislation adopts," Porush said, addressing lawmakers who oppose the bill.
Porush also addressed the High Court of Justice directly, warning that "you brought Israeli society to the edge of the abyss, and if you interfere with this effort too, the blood will be on your hands." He argued that the bill's opponents in government and the legal establishment are inflaming an already dangerous rift in Israeli society, pointing to recent incidents including a gun drawn against Haredi protesters on Highway 1 and a young yeshiva student from Ashdod who he said was beaten until he bled.
He went further, addressing police officers directly and instructing them not to carry out what he called an illegal order. "Do not carry out an order that flies a black flag," Porush said, referencing the legal doctrine that soldiers and officers may refuse manifestly illegal orders. He told officers that even if the High Court strikes down the law, it would be acting without authority, and that the law itself remains binding on them regardless.
Porush closed by appealing directly to opposition lawmakers, asking them to set politics aside and recognize that tens of thousands of yeshiva students currently face arrest warrants over Torah study, and that the state lacks the detention capacity to actually jail 90,000 people even if it wanted to. He thanked Shas MK Yinon Azoulay, calling him his partner on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and said the two had faced what he described as incomprehensible levels of hatred from other committee members while advancing the legislation.
