UTJ MK Yitzchak Pindrus delivered a heated speech in the Knesset plenum on Monday evening in the wake of the riots in Bnei Brak on Sunday, accusing the justice system of marking the entire Chareidi sector as illegitimate.

“I come up here because of what some of the Knesset members have said, and I simply stand here astonished,” Pindrus began. “What were you thinking when you took a million, a million and a half citizens, and turned them into illegitimate and criminal? What did you think would happen?! What did you think when you took 100,000 people and made them criminals? What did you think would happen?”

“There’s no doubt we now face a challenge we never had before—to teach our children not to be violent and not to be cruel, even though they are being beaten, even though they are being chased in the streets, even though they have been declared illegitimate, even though they have been turned into criminals. This is a difficult educational challenge, and I don’t envy the educators who must deal with it.”

“What happened yesterday in Bnei Brak was a terrible act that must not happen. But to see those same people who caused this—’have you murdered and also inherited?’—you took 100,000 people and made them illegitimate. What did you think would happen—that they’d say to you, ‘Thank you very much, you saved us. What did you think would happen when you came to harm what is most precious to us? Yes, most precious. It was precious to us for thousands of years before the State of Israel was founded, and we were moser nefesh for it.”

“If you think the issue of yeshivos and conscription is new—it existed in Europe and many other places. We stood firm and will continue to stand firm. And stop getting excited and quoting this one or that one. Not a single yeshiva bochur should enlist in the IDF. Not a single yeshiva bochur. Do you hear? Yes, none. That doesn’t mean Chareidim who are not yeshiva students should not enlist—that is what the law is meant to regulate.”

“But what did you think would happen? Continue doing this—making 1.3 million people illegitimate—and then shouting about how people reached such a low point of violence—which I think is terrible and must be stopped at all costs. But the blame? The blame is on you—on [Supreme Court Justice Noam] Sohlberg, on Gali Baharav-Miara, on those who petitioned the Supreme Court, on Aharon Barak—on those people. We will get through this period, but they will be remembered for eternal disgrace.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)