MK Meir Porush spoke this weekin the Knesset plenum, slamming Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer.
According to Porush, Sofer is lending a hand to the sanctions imposed by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on the haredi public and the haredi family.
At the start of his remarks, MK Porush responded to reports about attempts to reduce the presence of the haredi public in Jerusalem by means of high-rise construction.
"I recently saw a newspaper clipping in which an economic commentator boasts, without shame, about how residential towers are being built in order to divert members of the haredi public from the city," Porush said.
"From here, I want to tell that commentator, and to whoever sent him: You have the wrong address. Jerusalem is not Tel Aviv! Perhaps the haredim were expelled from Tel Aviv, perhaps they were pushed out of other cities - but here, in the King’s palace, they will not be able to drive the haredim out of Jerusalem."
He added that Jerusalem is Jerusalem because of the haredim, and that anyone who tries to force them out will discover that he is left without the values that sanctify the city.
Porush issued a sharp call to decision-makers, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, to act to ensure the city’s development for all its residents. He emphasized voting data from the Knesset elections four years ago, when more than 40% of voters in Jerusalem chose haredi parties, alleging its connection to what he defined as the persecution of the Torah world. According to him, the Jewish majority in the city is maintained solely thanks to large families, and he warned of the consequences of excluding haredim from the city.
At this stage in the speech, MK Porush turned directly to Minister Sofer and presented numerical data comparing the strength of the haredi parties to that of the Religious Zionist parties in the capital. He noted that in the Knesset elections, United Torah Judaism received 63,008 votes and Shas received 48,470 votes in Jerusalem - together 111,478 votes - while Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit together received 37,635 votes from Jerusalem.
He then presented the distribution of seats in the city council, according to which Religious Zionism, Aryeh King, and Noam hold five seats, compared with 16 seats held by the haredi representation, including Degel Hatorah, Shas, Agudat Yisrael, and the extremist Jerusalem Faction.
"I turn to you, Minister Sofer: Whose feet are you seeking to push out of Jerusalem?" Porush asked in his speech in the plenum. "You are lending a hand to the same sanctions that the Attorney General is imposing on the haredi public - and you say nothing when more than 113,000 people among them over the age of 18 live in Jerusalem. You are the Aliyah Minister? I was also an oleh. My great-great-grandfather immigrated from White Prussia. What kind of behavior is this toward the haredi public?"