Shas Spokesman: ‘A Red Line Has Been Crossed’ After Deadly Yerushalayim Protest Incident
In the wake of the fatal ramming during a chareidi draft protest in Yerushalayim, Shas spokesman Asher Medina delivered a forceful and unequivocal response in an interview on Kikar FM, describing the incident as a defining moment in relations between the chareidi public and the state.
Appearing on the program amid the unfolding shock, Medina said the evening marked an unprecedented rupture. “This is an extremely difficult night,” he said. “It can be marked as a red line, perhaps even a watershed moment in relations between the chareidi public and the state. We’ve been through countless difficult demonstrations in recent years — judicial reform, war, hostages — but a line like this has never been crossed. A young man goes out to a protest and doesn’t come home.”
Medina pointed to disturbing footage from the scene, saying it raises fundamental questions about how such an event could occur. “You see a bus driving wildly into a crowd. You ask yourself, who can allow himself to do such a thing? Who feels that this is permitted?”
According to Medina, the prevailing feeling within the chareidi community is one of abandonment and exposure. “There is a very harsh sense that our blood has been made ownerless. The chareidi public has become a punching bag. Every politician who wants to score points allows himself to impose another sanction, another decree, another blow — and then a situation is created where everything is allowed.”
While stressing that he was not drawing investigative conclusions, Medina made clear that Shas is demanding a comprehensive and uncompromising probe. “Shas chairman Aryeh Deri spoke just minutes ago with the police commissioner and demanded that the incident be investigated to the end, without a cover-up and without shortcuts. The driver was arrested, and the police committed to treating the event with the full severity of the law.”
At the same time, Medina said focusing solely on the driver misses the broader issue. “There is something here beyond technical details. It’s the atmosphere. It’s the incitement. If this had happened at another demonstration, in another place, the country would have been shaking. We would be hearing shocking condemnations from every direction. Here, somehow everything passes under the radar.”
Medina rejected claims that Shas or the wider chareidi leadership have remained silent. “The statement issued by Shas was on behalf of the entire faction, and it was not generic. It stated clearly — chareidi blood is not ownerless. Shas was the first to issue a sharp statement, and it was the one that set the condemnation in motion.”
He argued that criticism directed at chareidi leadership fails to address the real source of the problem. “This is not a spirit coming from within the chareidi public. The toxic wind is blowing from above — from politicians who incite, who talk about stripping rights, who portray the chareidi public as an enemy. In the end, it seeps into the street, and then you see scenes like this.”
Medina added that the immediate focus should not be internal recriminations. “There is a family that lost a son. Parents who were never meant to bury a child. This is a night of mourning and shock. Later, we will need to conduct a national reckoning — but first of all, to understand that a red line has been crossed.”
He concluded the interview with a call for unity across the chareidi spectrum in the face of what he described as a broad assault. “When chareidim are attacked — all of us are attacked. Not Shas, not Degel, not chassidim and not Litvaks. This is one front, and that must be the response.”
{Matzav.com}
