Overview
- United Torah Judaism head Yitzhak Goldknopf made the remarks at the Knesset during a Q&A with 12th-grade students from Ulpanat Ra’aya, a Religious Zionist high school in Beit El.
- Goldknopf attributed to the head of the IDF Personnel Directorate a claim that the Tel Aviv area has more draft-dodgers than the entire haredi public, a statement reported as his citation rather than independently verified data.
- He framed Torah study as central to Jewish identity and cited former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak as saying those whose vocation is Torah study should not be compelled to stop.
- He said anyone who neither studies Torah nor serves should face enforcement under the law and noted that a relative of his is currently serving in Gaza.
- He rejected past reports that he disparaged Religious Zionism, calling those accounts false, as the broader national dispute over haredi conscription and new draft legislation continues.