effigy of haredi soldier
effigy of haredi soldierpolice spokesperson

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation will discuss a bill which seeks to increase the sentence for those who attack IDF soldiers to 10 years in prison on Sunday.

The proposal was submitted by the Yesh Atid faction, and seeks to combat the phenomenon of attacks on haredi and religious IDF soldiers.

The bill proposes that the offense of "attacking a soldier" will be excluded from the offense of assault in the penal code. Thus, a punishment scale of up to seven years will be imposed for those who attack an IDF soldier, but under aggravated circumstances - in which the assailant intends to obstruct the soldier in his position or carry out the attack with a weapon, or when the attack was carried out by more than two people then offense carries a penalty of up to ten years in prison.

The initiator of the proposal, Yesh Atid MK Yoel Razvozov, said that the tougher punishment would send a clear message to the rioters and to the law enforcement system that the state sees the phenomenon of attacks on soldiers as something that will no longer be tolerated: "We will not allow a situation in which IDF soldiers will be walking anxiously inside the State of Israel. The IDF uniforms are a source of pride and not something to be hidden."

The harm to them erodes the foundations of our state and unity with Israel. Therefore, only when we act with a hard and uncompromising hand against those savages, lacking values ​​and respect for the IDF soldiers who protect us, and enable us to live our lives with security, will this unacceptable phenomenon end," he added.

Yesh Atid chairman MK Yair Lapid expects that this proposal will receive the support of all the Knesset factions from across the political spectrum. "I wish we did not have to promote this law. No one imagined that soldiers in the State of Israel would attack soldiers and protect their security. Unfortunately, these phenomena have increased in recent years with the growing integration of haredi soldiers into the ranks of the IDF."

"Now legislation is required that will make it clear to anyone who dares to raise his hand against an IDF soldier that he will be imprisoned behind bars for many years, and I am sure that we will receive support from all the coalition members and haredi parties who have come out against the violence of haredi extremists. There are issues on which we need to put politics aside, and protecting IDF soldiers is one of them," Lapid added.