A soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) interrupted a Knesset House Committee debate Tuesday on the Basic Law: Torah Study bill, blasting lawmakers for "squabbling like a bunch of little girls who were handed microphones."
"What is wrong with you? How do you run a country like this?” he shouted, and pointed to 107 veterans also dealing with post-trauma.
“My friends sit here every day, and it's a crime what you're doing to them - all of you here. Every day they cry. Hugging us in the hallways doesn't do anything. If I gave each and every one of you the footage from my GoPro of the bodies, you wouldn't sleep at night.”
The Basic Law: Torah Study bill is part of a proposal that critics argue encourages draft evasion and changes the status of yeshiva students who do not serve, enabling them to continue receiving state benefits, even amid the IDF’s severe manpower crisis.
The bill is highly controversial, as even lawmakers in Netanyahu’s coalition have publicly opposed it and voted against it.
Coalition works to fast-track legislation ahead of Knesset dissolution
Three days of marathon meetings were scheduled in the Knesset’s House Committee to fast-track the legislation this week, following threats from haredi party leaders to boycott coalition voting and disrupt the legislative agenda in an attempt to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to rapidly advance a series of haredi-backed bills.
The legislation was sponsored by MK Moshe Gafni, of the United Torah Judaism Party, along with other haredi MKs, and had also received government backing ahead of its preliminary reading last month.
After passing by a margin of 63 votes in favor and 53 against, it will still require approval in two more readings to become law.