Israeli officials are speaking out strongly against a rabbi who publicly cursed the country’s top military commander during an anti-conscription demonstration held Monday in Bnei Brak.
Rabbi Aryeh Yazdi drew immediate backlash after calling for IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir’s memory to be “erased” and accusing the Israeli military of promoting behavior that violates Jewish religious law. His remarks came as hundreds of haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, men gathered to oppose mandatory military conscription.
Standing before the crowd, Yazdi declared, “The cursed chief of staff, may his name and memory be erased, sent a soldier to prison…” He went further, labeling Israel an “impure country” for maintaining an army that, in his words, “educates for the most severe offenses in the Torah.”
The phrase “may his name and memory be erased” holds deep and grave meaning in Jewish tradition — it is typically reserved for the worst enemies of the Jewish people and those considered to have committed the most serious offenses imaginable.
Gadi Eisenkot, head of Yashar!, wasted no time in denouncing the speech, describing it as “wild incitement” and “a reckless crossing of a red line that effectively endangers the lives of IDF commanders and soldiers.”
President Isaac Herzog also weighed in with a firm rebuke, stating, “Even in times of deep division, there is no place for curses, insults or degrading language, especially when it concerns the supreme commander of the IDF and our soldiers, our sons and daughters.”
Yazdi’s speech focused primarily on his opposition to requiring ultra-Orthodox men to serve in the Israeli military. Beyond criticizing Zamir for jailing a soldier, he argued that an army he believes promotes violations of Torah law makes Israel unworthy of being called a pure nation.
