The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee met Sunday to discuss legislation on exemptions from military service for ultra‑Orthodox Jews, with a focus on personal sanctions on those who do not enlist. During the debate, United Torah Judaism party leader Yitzhak Goldknopf compared such sanctions to a Nazi yellow star, drawing widespread condemnation across the political spectrum.
“We greatly appreciate those who enlist; there’s no need to put us on one side and the other public on the other,” Goldknopf said. “I constantly hear statements that seculars evade service more than any of the ultra‑Orthodox in Israel, but it remains quiet. We don’t understand why suddenly we’re talking only about this small segment from Yavneh and its rabbis.”
Haredi Knesset lawmaker Meir Porush added that “seculars should receive a much greater sanction [for draft evasion] because so much more money was invested in them. If a secular evades service, he should pay more for all the ‘candy’ he received his whole life. The poor ultra‑Orthodox got nothing.”
Goldknopf also argued that all sanctions should be removed. “Sanctions is an ugly word. From the beginning we asked the prime minister and the cabinet secretary: give us pure Torah scholars. The Talmud says that anyone who accepts upon himself the yoke of Torah is relieved of the yoke of the state and the yoke of the way of the land,” he said. Addressing the committee, he continued: “I beg you, if there are those who learn Torah, exempt them from everything—they shouldn’t be tied to quotas or targets. In what country in the world do they take a rabbi and punish him? Here in Israel, we’ll decide to punish them? A yellow star, how can we do this?”
The comments drew swift rebuke. Knesset lawmaker Elazar Stern of the opposition Yesh Atid party protested Goldknopf’s use of the term “yellow star,” telling him: “That’s enough.” Committee chair Boaz Bismuth also condemned the comparison: “My colleagues know the great respect I have for Torah scholars and the ultra‑Orthodox world in general. This is not a yellow star. There’s a limit.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid addressed Goldknopf directly: “Rabbi Goldknopf, how dare you? My father wore a yellow star in the Budapest ghetto simply because there was no Jewish army to protect his life. My grandfather wore a yellow star when he was murdered in a concentration camp,” said Opposition Leader Yair Lapid.
Lapid added: “What you said today in the committee is every antisemite’s dream—both demeaning the memory of Holocaust victims and showing contempt for the IDF and its soldiers.”
National Unity Minister Amichai Chikli also slammed Goldknopf’s remarks. “I’ve encountered out‑of‑touch politicians, but Goldknopf is truly another level. From rowing on the Danube with a cello to comparing sanctions for draft evasion to a yellow star—complete disconnection from reality. His public deserves much more,” he said.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich criticized the UTJ leader as well.
“Thank goodness Goldknopf is no longer part of our National Camp coalition, and as it appears, he’s not expected to return. There is no place in our coalition for disconnected and insensitive people who continue to harm the people of Israel, IDF soldiers and Torah scholars.”
Smotrich added: “Our heroic fighters are the ones battling the Nazis of every generation and preventing them from carrying out the Final Solution conceived by the one who devised the yellow star. Religious Zionism shows you can combine sifra v’sipha (Torah study and military service), and we are determined to show that the ultra‑Orthodox public is capable of it too.”
Retired Major General Noam Tivon also weighed in. “Honestly, we’re tired of the complaining by ultra‑Orthodox members of Knesset on the draft law. Even more infuriating is the cynical and base use of Holocaust memory. They call police Nazis at demonstrations and suggest yellow stars for draft evaders. It won’t help—you won’t pass this draft law. In the Government of Correction we will enlist all ultra‑Orthodox, and they will be excellent soldiers.”