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Right-wing leader: Elections sparking incitement against Orthodox Jews

Israel’s former Justice Minister and leader of the United Right says the elections are sparking incitement against Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews.

By World Israel News Staff

Ayelet Shaked, former Justice Minister and leader of the United Right, criticized opposition leaders for conducting a campaign of incitement against the haredi sector of Israeli society in an interview on Channel 13 on Tuesday.

“Both Liberman and Lapid are leading a campaign of incitement against the haredim,” Shaked said, referring to Avigdor Liberman, leader of the Israel Beiteinu party, and Yair Lapid, co-leader of the Blue and White party.

Liberman has built his campaign on attacking haredim for obtaining deferrals from serving in the military while taking money from the state to fund their religious schools. Lapid has also taken a strong stance against this and has pushed legislation to force haredim to serve in the Israeli military.

Lapid recently came under criticism, including from members of his own party, for posting a campaign ad suggesting that the haredi political leadership would agree to anything for money.

“As a woman who isn’t religious who stands at the head of a bloc that includes both religious parties and is in good relations with the haredim, I think we should talk about unity,” she said.

“Our power I would say is in our unity, not in our uniformity. We don’t need to be all the same. We don’t need to think the same. But we don’t need to exploit the election campaign in order to incite against one sector or another,” Shaked said.

“There are politicians who do that to pull and collect votes. I’m really disgusted by this,” she said.

“I admire haredi society. I think we need to make every effort so that they’ll integrate into Israeli society and we should not go against them,” Shaked said.