Finance Minister Yair Lapid
Finance Minister Yair LapidFlash 90

Finance Minister Yair Lapid, Chairman of the Yesh Atid party, wasted no time Tuesday after an attack against a hareidi soldier in Meah Shearim, and called Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich to demand tough treatment of hareidi extremists, Yesh Atid's MK Mickey Levy said Wednesday.

Aharonovich “promised to deal with the phenomenon with a heavy fist and without compromise,” according to Levy.

Levy drew a parallel between Arab attacks on IDF soldiers and the attack at Meah Shearim, when he noted – “This is not Ramallah or Jenin, but the center of Jerusalem.”

Levy, a former major general in the Israel police, said he would do all he could to fight this kind of violence, which he termed “the rotten fruit” of the incitement by certain leaders of the hareidi community against enlistment to the IDF.

"This is not the first time,” he said. “This is a disgusting phenomonon that we intend to fight and put an end to. The Finance Minister has already spoken last night with the Public Security Minister, who promised to deal with the phenomenon with a heavy fist and without compromise.”

Levy, who is Deputy Minister of Finance, vowed that the reform in enlistment of hareidi men will pass despite the objection of the “extremist fringes” of hareidi society.

"For our part, we will continue to advance the law for equality in the terms of service, despite the protestations of all the extremists who wish to destroy the fabric of our common life here,” he added.