Haredi leaders blame babies’ deaths on state’s push to draft ultra-Orthodox men |
In the hours after two babies lost their lives in an unlicensed and massively overcrowded daycare in the ultra-Orthodox Romema neighborhood of Jerusalem on Monday, Haredi leaders blamed the tragedy on the state and the legislative efforts to draft young men of the community.
Later in the day, dozens protested against the planned autopsies of the two young victims, burning trash cans and blocking the street.
Ultra-Orthodox politicians addressed the tragedy in meetings at the Knesset.
“Who can say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood?’ When a very large population is suddenly pushed into hardship, people are forced to look for other solutions, and the consequences can be harsh and bitter,” said Aryeh Deri, chairman of the Sephardic Haredi party Shas.
Addressing his party’s MKs during their weekly faction meeting in the Knesset on Sunday, Deri insisted that it was “forbidden to operate unlicensed daycares,” but that, “at the same time, a deep soul-searching is also required.”
Deri appeared to refer to cuts made to Haredi budgets following last year’s High Court of Justice ruling that decades-long exemptions from military service granted to Haredi men were illegal.
Since then, yeshivas harboring draft dodgers have seen their budgets slashed, and the Attorney General’s Office instructed the Labor Ministry to cut daycare subsidies for the children of evaders.
Fellow Shas MK Moshe Arbel, who until July served as interior minister, voiced a similar sentiment.
“In the State of Israel, the children of illegal immigrants are entitled to daycare centers and kindergartens,” he said in a statement. “In the name of the........