United Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush on Tuesday declared that if Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara “does not stop persecuting Torah scholars” by pushing to arrest draft dodgers, there will be “no choice” but to “drive her out with sticks and stones.”

Addressing representatives of local authorities belonging to his Shlomei Emunim political movement — part of the UTJ party’s Agudat Yisrael faction — at a conference in Betar Illit, Porush said that they “must be prepared together for a difficult and complex campaign” against efforts to conscript yeshiva students into the military.

“The day may not be far off when I will contact you with the decision that we must completely disassociate ourselves from cooperation with other government authorities that are taking part in the persecution against us. We may have to lead economic moves that will shake the economy and make the other side understand that we cannot be messed with,” Porush said.

His remarks echoed Shas chairman Aryeh Deri’s threat of a Haredi “tax revolt,” and Degel HaTorah chairman Moshe Gafni’s recent instruction to local party representatives on regional councils across the country to halt all cooperation with the police over the arrest of yeshiva students.

“I saw this week that Ehud Barak, former prime minister and chief of staff, one of the leaders of the Kaplanists [the term used by many to refer to left-wing and anti-government activists], said that ‘if Netanyahu tries to sabotage the elections, there will be no choice but to expel him with sticks and stones,” Porush said. “Once war........

© The Times of Israel