"They are hungry": Goldknopf calls to ease detention conditions for ultra-Orthodox deserters

The chairman of United Torah Judaism, Rabbi Yitzhak Goldknopf, called on Wednesday to ease strict procedures for ultra-Orthodox deserters imprisoned for failing to enlist in the IDF and to release them ahead of the Tishrei holidays. After visiting the detainees at Prison 10, Goldknopf said:

"They should spend the holidays at home, with their family, and not like common criminals in prison."

The United Torah Judaism chairman added that "they are hungry and not feeling well."

About two months ago, during a Knesset discussion regarding the Basic Law: Torah Study bill, Yitzhak Goldknopf stated:

"If you do not want those who study Torah to serve in the IDF, you cannot treat them as if they were Nukhba terrorists. Because you study Torah you will go to prison — there has never been such a thing."

In the background, opposition Knesset members voiced their protest. Knesset member Naor Shiri (Yesh Atid) retorted: "Are you serious? What is wrong with you?"

During a discussion on the Security Service Law bill regarding the integration of yeshiva students, Knesset member Moshe Solomon (Religious Zionism) addressed the bill's initiator, Likud MK Boaz Bismuth:

"You described the law as a tourniquet. This tourniquet might create necrosis. I said I would support the law if it were specific, limited, and only regarding the arrests, because I really think it is not good."

Knesset member Hili Tropper, chairman of the Zionist Reservists' Party, was outraged by the claim that the deserters are hungry:

"I am only thinking about the soldiers in the field with their combat rations, who have not returned home for the holidays for almost three years. An ugly display of detachment and callousness."