Haredi journalist Arye Erlich on Thursday slammed an editorial published in the Lithuanian-haredi newspaper Yated Ne'eman, which claimed that anyone who joins the million-person protest is "not haredi" and "been stripped of citizenship in the house of G-d."
"It will not be Yated Ne'eman who strips haredi citizenship, and it will not be [Yated Ne'eman editor] Yisrael Friedman who determines who is one of us and who is not of our community," Erlich wrote. "Each person will decide whether to attend the protest or to avoid it - the Torah sages have not intervened, and that's not a coincidence."
"The substandard culture in which selectors sit at the gates of haredi society and decide who is worthy and who is unworthy is something which Rabbi [Aharon Leib] Steinman, of blessed memory, rid the world of."
Walla! journalist Yaki Adamker, who is also haredi, explained, "I will summarize for you the level of influence that the Yated Ne'eman editorial this morning has: Haredim who did not plan to attend the protest this evening would not have participated, even without the editorial. Haredim who planned to attend the protest this evening will attend it despite the editorial, and that's it."
Journalist Yaakov Rivlin said, "The haredim are right that they are not participating today in the protest in favor of the judicial reform. They need to save their energy for the protest in favor of the Draft Law - something else which Netanyahu does not plan to pass."
Analyst Israel Cohen wrote, "In the Yated Ne'eman article it also says, 'We obviously go with the right, by instruction of our rabbis... We are in favor of the judicial reform and against the liberal terror's takeover of the people's lives through dictatorship.' And so we need to pay attention: The million people from the haredi community who are in favor of the reform and who will not attend because of the type of demonstration it is need to be added to the number of people who actively attend the protest."