Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday forcefully criticized comments made by Maran Rav Dov Landau regarding IDF soldiers, particularly members of the Religious Zionist community who wear knitted yarmulkas.

Netanyahu praised the dedication of all Israeli soldiers and rejected the remarks as unacceptable.

“I strongly reject the shocking statements made against IDF soldiers from the Religious Zionist community. IDF soldiers – religious, secular, and charedi – leave their homes, their jobs, and their families, and risk their lives to defend the State of Israel, its citizens, and the entire Jewish people.

“They deserve profound appreciation, gratitude, and full support from every segment of the public, and certainly also from the Torah world,” Netanyahu said.

Standing firmly behind Rav Landau, the Degel HaTorah faction issued a statement Monday defending his comments. “The words of the great Torah sages are the holiest of holies for the Jewish people, and we live by their guidance.” The party also called on the public to refrain from hastily interpreting or criticizing the statements of the gedolim.

The controversy erupted after remarks by Rav Landau, released Sunday night, in which he voiced an unusually sharp criticism of government officials and Religious Zionist leaders advocating that bnei yeshivah enlist in the IDF.

“Will it not be so? The decrees come from another source. There are wicked people here – what can be done? There are wicked people, including among those who wear knitted kippot. I am referring to those Religious Zionists who insist that people must enlist. I would ask them, according to their own way of thinking – though they have no consistent position at all – if the state sends people, soldiers, for the sake of the country’s honor, and they are killed, is that also permissible? That is outright murder. Therefore, they are inciting murder – that is what they are doing.”

Rav Landau further argued that Religious Zionist leaders who encourage military service are promoting what he described as “actual murder,” asserting that soldiers are dispatched into battle “not only for the sake of saving lives, but also for the honor of the state.”