MK Meir Porush delivered a fiery address in the Knesset on Monday, warning Police Commissioner Danny Levy that continued arrests of yeshiva students could lead to a complete breakdown in cooperation between police and Chareidi municipalities across Israel.

Porush pointed to a letter sent earlier in the day by the chairman of the Forum of Chareidi Local Authorities, Meir Rubinstein, informing the police that Chareidi municipalities were suspending cooperation with law enforcement over what they described as the targeting of Torah learners.

“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.

He said the message conveyed by the municipal leaders was unmistakable and accused police leadership of pushing the country toward instability.

“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.”

Porush emphasized that municipal leaders did not arrive at the decision lightly and understood the far-reaching consequences that could result from severing ties with the police.

“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.”

Continuing his criticism, Porush argued that law enforcement has alienated an entire sector of the population and jeopardized years of cooperation between police and Chareidi communities.

“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 then issued what he described as a final warning, insisting that the arrests must stop immediately or relations between the police and the Chareidi public would continue to deteriorate.

“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.

{Matzav.com}