Speaking before the Knesset plenum, Porush referred to a letter sent today to the Police Commissioner by the chairman of the Forum of Haredi Local Authorities, Meir Rubinstein, in which he announced the suspension of cooperation between haredi municipalities and the police due to what they described as the persecution of Torah scholars.
“Today, nine local authority heads in the State of Israel placed a bright red warning sign before the Inspector General of the Israel Police," Porush began his speech.
“A warning sign carrying a clear message: You, the Police Commissioner, are leading the country toward anarchy. The Forum of Haredi Local Authority Heads, led by the Mayor of Beitar Illit, Rabbi Meir Rubinstein, sent a letter to the Commissioner informing him that they will have no choice but to cancel all cooperation with the police."
According to Porush, this was not an easy decision, and the local authority leaders are fully aware of its serious implications.
“But when the police have effectively become the enforcement arm of the infamous Attorney General-a bureaucrat who has decided to inflame tensions and trample every reasonable understanding-we have no choice but to fight back with full force.
“The reality in which Israeli police officers, instead of combating the rising crime in the streets, are occupied with hunting yeshiva students-married scholars and young men whose only offense is studying Torah-is a distorted reality that has no place in a properly functioning state."
“In a country governed by Jews, the police have turned themselves into the enemy of an entire public simply because it studies Torah-a public numbering more than one million people over the age of 18. In doing so, they are erasing decades of coordinated work, daily coexistence, and basic trust that was an asset to all of us. Our message today to the Police Commissioner is sharp and clear: the responsibility for dismantling this framework of cooperation rests solely on your shoulders."
Porush further stated: “There is a final ultimatum here: if these arrests are not stopped immediately, if you do not cease this persecution that is leading the country toward complete anarchy, we will leave you with no foothold in our communities. The Haredi public will not remain silent while its sons are being persecuted, nor will it file reports with a police force that has lost its trust and legitimacy.
“Mr. Commissioner, regaining your senses is your immediate duty-before it becomes too late to turn the clock back," concluded MK Porush.