Porush Uses Knesset Memorial for Ben-Gurion to Defend Yeshiva Students: “He Knew the Yeshivos Are Our Right to Exist”

The Knesset held its annual memorial session Wednesday marking the yahrtzeit of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, and the speech that drew the most attention came from UTJ MK Meir Porush, who used the podium to sharply criticize the legal establishment while invoking Ben-Gurion’s historic role in securing the status of bnei hayeshivos.

Porush opened by declaring that although he never supported Ben-Gurion or the Labor movement, the chareidi community owes him acknowledgment. “I never voted for Ben-Gurion or for the Labor Party — I have been an Agudas Yisroel man since birth — but there is no doubt that given the harmful behavior toward chareidim today, Ben-Gurion is among the few leaders deserving of praise from the chareidi public in recent generations,” he said. He cited Ben-Gurion’s authorship of the status quo agreement and his establishment of the yeshiva draft exemption framework as actions that “poured concrete foundations for the existence of the yeshiva world.”

Porush lamented that “75 years after Ben-Gurion hammered in the nails that secured the status of yeshiva students, jurists — utterly detached from any spark of Judaism — arrived and declared war on the world of Torah, and in my view, on Ben-Gurion’s own legacy.”

Porush went on to describe Ben-Gurion’s original motivation for the status quo agreement. “When Ben-Gurion sought to establish the state, he wanted to prevent opposition from Agudas Yisroel, which at the time represented chareidi Jewry. He knew the UN would weigh that position. That is why the status quo document was crafted — to guarantee the preservation of basic Jewish principles in Eretz Yisroel.”

Porush then escalated his criticism, arguing that had Ben-Gurion been told that, decades later, “a group of unelected jurists would seize control of the state, embark on a campaign against the world of Torah and erase the agreements he set in place, I am not sure his stance would have been the same.”

He then turned his fire directly at Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. “Yesterday, the Attorney General — who has already been dismissed but clings to the horns of the altar — sent a letter to the prime minister demanding the arrest of more Torah learners and economic sanctions on families of struggling avreichim.”

Porush added angrily that the Attorney General is now urging Netanyahu to bypass the Knesset legislatively. “The one entrusted with upholding the law proposes circumventing the Knesset. Why? Because she knows that despite all disagreements, there is no majority in this building for her program of persecuting and arresting Torah students. Is this democracy?”

He also attacked the rebranding of the Labor Party as “The Democrats.” “Recently, they changed the name of the party Ben-Gurion founded to ‘Democrats,’ even though Ben-Gurion spoke of a Jewish and democratic state — because a democratic state alone can be established even in Uganda. Are Ben-Gurion’s successors trying to erase his legacy?”

Porush concluded with an appeal to Labor MKs. “I call on members of the Labor Party: follow in Ben-Gurion’s path and work to resolve the status of yeshiva students through dialogue and consensus. From Lieberman and Lapid I have no expectations — they build themselves by persecuting chareidim — but you, what do you have to do with all this?”

After finishing his remarks, Porush recited a perek of Mishnayos in Ben-Gurion’s memory.

{Matzav.com}