UTJ lawmaker Porush warns Haredim may go after AG ‘with sticks and stones’

We may have to lead economic moves that will shake the economy and make the other side understand that we cannot be messed with,” Porush said. Last month, Porush appeared to call on police to refuse orders to arrest yeshiva students who disobey draft orders, stating that they should “think carefully” about their actions. A 2025 investigation a telephone hotline linked to Porush, then a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, was counseling callers to “just ignore” summonses to the IDF’s recruitment bureau. Under Israeli law, someone inciting others to evade service during wartime is liable to a prison term of 15 years. Recent weeks have seen a significant uptick in ultra-Orthodox anti-conscription demonstrations. Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men block a road and clash with police during a protest against the jailing of yeshiva students who failed to comply with an army recruitment order, at Ganot Junction near Tel Aviv, June 11, 2026. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90) The protests are escalating against the backdrop of a fierce national debate over the blanket exemptions from military service long afforded to Haredi men. A High Court ruling declared in 2024 that Haredi men must enlist, and the debate over enlistment has gained urgency amid the multi-front war Israel has fought since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack. The Israel Defense Forces have warned repeatedly of an urgent manpower shortage amid the fighting. But Haredi leaders have continued to push for the exemptions to be enshrined in law, claiming that army service is a threat to their way of life and seeking to have the state view Torah study as service on par with military duty. Over the past two years, the military has sent out tens of thousands of enlistment orders to members of the ultra-Orthodox community following the High Court ruling. Most have ignored the orders, leading to large numbers of young men being classified as evaders and being subject to arrest or other sanctions. We can't do this work alone. The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south. There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.