United Torah Judaism chairman MK Yitzhak Goldknopf escalated his rhetoric Wednesday, threatening 'the day will come and we will turn the state around, the whole country a blazing fire — we will turn the prisons into yeshivas,' as reported by i24NEWS.
MK Yitzhak Goldknopf (United Torah Judaism) sharpened his protest rhetoric Wednesday afternoon, telling supporters 'the day will come and we will turn the state around, the whole country a blazing fire — we will turn the prisons into yeshivas.' The statement, reported by i24NEWS minutes after 15:00 Jerusalem, adds a new inflammatory element — converting prisons into religious study halls — to his earlier call for mass protests. As The Zioneer reported at 15:04, Goldknopf earlier asked supporters 'do you think they will make us into slaves?' and urged nationwide demonstrations.
The remarks extend a sequence of escalating rhetoric reported earlier Wednesday. At 14:19 Jerusalem, Goldknopf was first reported warning that 'the whole country is a blazing fire' and threatening 'the day will come when we will turn the state around, but that's at a later stage,' with the 'prisons into yeshivas' threat already appearing in the initial report on Kol B'Ramah radio. By the same minute, he had added a call for nationwide mass protests and the 'slaves' question, as covered by multiple Israeli outlets. The Zioneer's first bulletin at 15:04 synthesized those elements.
The remarks come amid ongoing tensions over ultra-Orthodox military service legislation and coalition dynamics. The exact context of 'prisons' in his threat was not specified in the report; it remains unclear whether he referred to legal consequences for draft resisters or more general political repression.
4 developments
- DevelopingUTJ MK Meir Porush threatens to 'drive attorney general from office with sticks and stones'
- DevelopingGoldknopf delivers ultimatum to Shlomo Karhi: keep Shabbat and content filtering or lose coalition support
- StrongShas spiritual leader Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef calls attorney general 'garbage', says Trump shifted due to draft-dodger arrests
- DevelopingMK Goldknopf: Government is arresting draft evaders 'who have done no wrong'
Source and signal
- Internal intake