Finance Committee Chairman MK Chanoch Milwidsky (Likud) made unusually harsh statements against Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Sunday for her persecution of Chareidim and rejected claims that her economic decrees have anything to do with concerns over the draft law.

Speaking in an interview with Kol B’Ramah, he said. “Anyone who thinks this has anything to do with the draft or anything like that is talking complete nonsense. This is a political witch hunt by the Attorney General against the community of Lomdei Torah, with a clear goal of discouraging it, harming it, and preventing it from going to the polls in the upcoming elections.

“She is abusing the Chareidi public because it’s easy and because it’s possible right now. She is a cursed woman, a terrible woman who has no qualms about harming children and the weak. I’m certain she will eventually be held accountable somewhere for her terrible actions. I doubt it will happen within our current judicial system — at least not until we carry out a comprehensive judicial revolution —but there are greater powers.”

“She didn’t hesitate to fabricate a blood libel against our reserve soldiers during wartime, just months after the October 7 massacre, so she certainly won’t hesitate here. In her view, and in the view of those around her, we took the country away from them, and their primary security interest is preventing a right-wing government from remaining in power.”

Milwidsky asserted that coalition figures who are appealing to the High Court over the sanctions against Chareidim are making a strategic mistake.

“We need to wake up from our fantasies. Anyone who thinks the High Court is going to provide any relief to the Torah-learning community is simply mistaken. This isn’t a legal dispute or a clash of worldviews. It’s a campaign against Chareidim designed to subdue it and make life financially harder for it.”

“At the same time, I haven’t seen anyone demanding a reexamination of funding for universities where students haven’t regularized their military status or actively work against the country’s security, while organizations that assist illegal infiltrators or Sudanese migrants continue receiving funding and Section 46 tax benefits without any problem.”

Milwidsky also revealed that he had tried to advance a workaround in the Finance Committee to approve funding for Chareidi organizations despite the Attorney General’s directives, but was rebuffed by the Finance Minister and the head of the Israel Tax Authority.

“A month and a half or two months ago, I urged the Finance Minister and the head of the Tax Authority to completely ignore directives of this kind and send us all the organizations for approval in the Finance Committee without selective discrimination,” Milwidsky said.

“Smotrich and I don’t exactly have a warm relationship, but when I contacted the head of the Tax Authority, I copied him on the letter, and I also publicly called on him in the Knesset to instruct them to ignore this unlawful directive.

“Unfortunately, they keep passing it on and shuffling it from one official to another. They’re simply afraid, and it’s hard for me to blame them entirely because they know the people in the judicial system have no limits. But Smotrich has chosen a different course, and he needs to explain to the public why he isn’t standing with his natural coalition partners.”

Milwidsky stressed that the Torah world is essential to the continuity of the Jewish state. “The Torah world is what has kept the flame alive throughout all the years and all the generations, and they simply want to extinguish it. We must not become confused for even a moment, and we must not conflate support for military service with support for this economic persecution.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)