Gafni Slams Attorney General Over Draft Law Crisis: “Haredim Are Not Political Pawns”
At a Thursday evening gathering honoring volunteers of United Hatzalah’s Bnei Brak branch, MK Moshe Gafni, chairman of the Degel Hatorah faction, delivered a blistering attack on Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, accusing her of deliberately targeting the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community.
“You are living proof that the haredi public serves and saves lives across Israel,” Gafni told the United Hatzalah volunteers at the Kfar Maccabiah event. “But some refuse to see it.”
Gafni’s sharpest criticism was directed at Baharav-Miara, whom he accused of engineering a political narrative to justify her position. “The Attorney General is attempting to provoke the haredim, so that when calls arise for her dismissal, she can claim credit for standing against us,” he charged. “It’s disgraceful that someone like this serves as the legal adviser of the State.”
He ended with a caustic remark: “And yet, if Heaven forbid something were to happen to her, it would be United Hatzalah’s haredi medics who would be the first to save her.”
Gafni’s remarks come amid intensifying controversy over the Draft Law, which aims to regulate the enlistment of yeshiva students into the IDF. The haredi leadership claims Baharav-Miara is at the center of a judicial push to force sweeping military measures against yeshiva students in the absence of new legislation.
Adding to the political friction, a senior haredi source speaking to Arutz Sheva voiced frustration with Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein. The source accused Edelstein of stalling the legislation, apparently in coordination with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to delay a final resolution until the Knesset’s summer recess.
“We’re not aware of any real changes Edelstein wants to make to the law,” the source said. “It seems this is part of a calculated delay, orchestrated to avoid resolving the issue during this session.”
With the legal and political pressure mounting, the source issued a stern warning: “This is a fragile situation that could collapse at any moment. We’re not here to play games. The time is coming when we must decide whether we continue participating in this charade — or send a clear message: we are not anyone’s political playthings.”
