A Haredi rabbi cursed IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Monday at a Bnei Brak anti-enlistment protest led by Sephardic ultra-Orthodox party Shas, which later distanced itself from the comments as condemnations poured in from across the political spectrum.

The uproar over the comments came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Haredi coalition partners are seeking to enshrine blanket Haredi exemptions from the draft and push through a quasi-constitutional bill that would put Torah study on par with military service.

Speaking at the Monday night event, where hundreds of men protested the arrest of Haredi draft dodgers, Rabbi Yosef Aryeh Yazdi noted the 30-day prison sentence given in May to a soldier whom Zamir called out for wearing an unauthorized “Messiah” patch.

“The accursed IDF chief of staff — may his name and memory be erased — sent him to prison for a month. Why? Because he yearned for the Messiah,” Yazdi said.

“I agree with the IDF chief — may his name be erased, but he’s correct: This entire army wants to root out the Torah, to root out belief, to root out the Messiah,” the rabbi added.

Yazdi also said: “In the army they are educating people toward the most severe transgressions in the Torah in this impure country. This whole army desires to uproot the name of God.”

“Don’t fall into that. Don’t go to the army,” he said.

הרב משה יזדי בבני ברק בעצרת המחאה של מפלגת ש"ס נגד המעצרים בבני ברק: "הרמטכ"ל ימח שמו וזיכרו שולח חייל לכלא כי הוא שם פתק משיח, בצבא מחנכים לעבירות החמורות ביותר" pic.twitter.com/bP5Cwz0wIF Advertisement if(typeof rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner != "function" || !rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner("#Article_Incontent1")){ window.tude = window.tude || { cmd: [] }; tude.cmd.push(function() { if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("rgbmedia-app") > -1){ tude.setDeviceType("mobile"); } tude.refreshAdsViaDivMappings([ { divId: 'Article_Incontent1', baseDivId: 'Article_Incontent1', } ]); }); } — יואלי ברים yoeli brim (@yoeli_brim) June 29, 2026

הרב משה יזדי בבני ברק בעצרת המחאה של מפלגת ש"ס נגד המעצרים בבני ברק: "הרמטכ"ל ימח שמו וזיכרו שולח חייל לכלא כי הוא שם פתק משיח, בצבא מחנכים לעבירות החמורות ביותר" pic.twitter.com/bP5Cwz0wIF

— יואלי........

© The Times of Israel