After a week of of demonstrations outside a military prison housing haredi detainees, former Sephardic chief rabbi slammed Netanyahu and Shas leader Arye Deri of stalling the haredi draft bill.
Former Sephardi chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef on Saturday night called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “an atheist,” accused him and Shas leader Arye Deri of stalling a haredi draft bill, and alleged that the IDF is targeting Sephardim for arrests.
Speaking after a week of demonstrations outside a military prison that houses haredi detainees, Yosef said that the coalition should have passed the draft law before approving its first budget, in line with the coalition agreement. “It should have been before forming the government, as written in the coalition agreement, to pass the draft law before the first budget,” he said.
Yosef sharply criticized haredi lawmakers and Netanyahu, invoking the late Rabbi Shalom Cohen, who served as president of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages. “Do not listen to Bibi after the budget. Why did they listen to him? If Hacham Shalom were alive, he would shout at the emissaries of the rabbis. Why are you dragging your feet? Why are you listening to Bibi? Do you believe him? He is an atheist,” Yosef said.
The Rishon LeZion (the honorific for the Sephardi chief rabbi) continued, “You rely on someone like that? What are you relying on him for, to pass the draft law? So more delays, and we got into trouble.”
He also took aim at the military’s recent round of arrests. “They arrest mainly Sephardim. They know that there the father is weak, the mother is weak,” he said, adding, “What is this, Russia? When they knock on the door, look through the peephole to see who it is. If it is them, do not open the door. Get through this difficult period.”
Highway 4 near the Coca-Cola Junction was blocked Thursday afternoon as hundreds of Haredi protesters took to the streets. (credit: Yosi Zeliger/TPS)
Previous Controversies
Yosef has a long record of provocative statements that often incite public debate. In January 2020, he drew widespread condemnation for referring to some immigrants from the former Soviet Union as “communist, religion-hating” gentiles; then-Prime Minister Netanyahu branded those remarks “outrageous” and praised the immigrants as “a huge blessing to the State of Israel and the Jewish people” .
In mid‑2021, Yosef dismissed secular academic subjects, labeling science and mathematics “nonsense,” and urged that students focus solely on Torah study .
