Haredi minister tells court: 'We will not leave the government'

Welfare Minister Yakov Margi, a member of the Sephardic-haredi Shas party, has promised that his party will not break apart the government over the Draft Law.

In an interview with the "120 and one" podcast on Ynet, Margi said, "So long as the decrees and sanctions are made so that we will leave the government, we are determined. We will not leave. I am telling the Prosecutor's Office, the court, the legal advisers, all the troopers. We have a responsibility during a time of war."

Margi, who served in the IDF and whose children served in the IDF, stressed, "A month and a half or two months ago, it was reported that 5,000 haredim expressed willingness to enlist. They drafted maybe 700 or 1,000 of them. Why is the Defense Ministry not putting out draft orders? Because it doesn't want to. They prefer to play politics instead."

He continued, "Since the Tal Law was canceled, they have made politics out of drafting haredim. Unfortunately, they are painting for us - the haredi leadership, the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor's Office, and the Attorney General's office - a puddle of water, and we are jumping into it head-first. The State of Israel has laws. The Supreme Court is supposed to rule according to the law, and not according to studios and caprices and the public's opinion. The law requires that everyone eligible be drafted."

"I will ask a question, and please, someone answer me: Why in G-d's Name did the secretary in charge not draft them? Why are you coming with complaints to the haredi public and taking its budgets away? Soon they will prevent us from having basic civil rights. I ask the Defense Minister or the Chief of Staff: Do you have a technological model which has succeeded in the Air Force? Copy it. You have models from Hetz, the Paratroopers, the Givati model, the Kfir model, Netzach Yehuda. Why not create other special units and draft [haredim]?"