JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Rabbi Eliav Turjeman, a religious Zionist rabbi who is also an officer in the IDF’s Hasmonean brigade, wrote a Facebook post in which he expressed his identification with the Charedi public and his frustration at how they are being portrayed in the general media, a far cry from their real character. Turjeman sees a “well-funded campaign” whose goal is to spread dissension and strife within the right wing and to besmirch the charedim who don’t enlist in the IDF in order to gain politically from the fallout.

Turjeman’s Post

What happened yesterday in Bnei Brak
was sad. Painful. Infuriating.

But above all, the feeling that rose in me,and that I waited many long hours to write, is frustration.

I am frustrated because two years ago, when the well-funded campaign calling for the forced conscription of charedim began, I saw this exact scene before my eyes: these images, this chaos, this violence, this atmosphere of war and blood in the streets, and the escalation of violence to insane levels.

Those who wanted chaos got chaos. Those who wanted a precise ignition of a powder keg received exactly that.

Needless to say, I oppose violence of any kind. And just as I oppose violence, so does the overwhelming majority of the charedi public. The leading rabbis and the residents of Bnei Brak themselves said this yesterday unequivocally.

But these images serve one clear side: the side that seeks to damage brotherhood, the side that wants to see the faithful public and the right-wing bloc arrive at elections scarred, broken, battered, and above all consumed by internal strife.

I say this dozens of times, and no matter how much I’ve been attacked for it, I will not stop saying it: you cannot recruit a single good soldier by force. You cannot create any mechanism of identification without motivation and a genuine desire to be part of it.

No military framework, as good as it may be, even the Hasmonean Brigade, where I have the privilege of commanding a reserve company, can be a home unless charedim feel that the place they are entering loves them, wants them, and respects them. That truth will not change.

Anyone who thinks it is possible to send female soldiers into homes in Bnei Brak, while for months fueling the very processes that push this community to a boiling point, understands nothing.

Anyone who speaks with people in and around Bnei Brak in recent weeks hears the same thing: arrest warrants, budget freezes — the streets are burning.

I cannot help but think that these are exactly the images those deep pockets funding the reckless campaign for forced conscription hoped to see, and that they are now rubbing their hands in satisfaction.

We will not allow this to happen.

We have gone through a difficult day. But precisely from this hardship, we will continue efforts toward connection and brotherhood, our ability to focus on what unites us, our concern for the world of Torah, and the importance of preserving the charedi character and way of life.

Not through opposition, not through external pressure to alter internal processes, but through trust, love, and solidarity.

Our charedi brothers, we stand with you.