Belaaz Interview: MK Pindros on Mass Protest, ‘We Can’t Let a Chillul Hashem Stand’

Up to a million people are expected to flood Yerushalayim Thursday for a massive demonstration, according to former MK Yitzchak Pindros of Degel Hatorah, who spoke with Belaaz Wednesday night as last-minute preparations were underway.

The protest, which organizers anticipate will draw 600,000 people from outside the city alone, is a direct response to the ongoing arrest of yeshiva students who have not enlisted in the IDF.

“I believe there’s going to be a million people,” Pindros told Belaaz. “You’re talking about 1/8 of the Jewish population. That shows how important the issue is to them.”

Logistical preparations are massive, with Pindros noting that “transportation is going to be an issue,” and many participants are already traveling to the capital. He stressed the demonstration represents an unusually broad coalition within the Charedi community and beyond, with several Religious Zionist figures, including Rabbi Tzvi Thau instructing their followers to attend.

“Everybody wants to be part of it,” Pindros stated. “All parts of the Charedim..from the Edah Charedis until the Mizrachi.”

While the political debate over the draft has simmered for years, Pindros identified a clear “tipping point” for the mass mobilization: the arrests themselves, which he framed as an intolerable desecration.

“The issue is very simple: that bachurim that are sitting and learning are being arrested,” Pindros explained. “Having people that are sitting and learning being arrested, that is a Chilul Hashem . And that Chilul Hashem, we can’t just sit there.”

He described a climate of fear among students, stating, “A bachur doesn’t know when he’s going to be arrested, if he’s going to pass a traffic light or be stopped by a cop… or they’re knocking at his door at night. The arrests… that’s something that we can’t agree to.”

The demonstration was initially hesitated upon, according to Pindros, due to the ongoing war. “It was in the middle of the war, and we were having funerals every day,” he said. “It’s very difficult for people to absorb a situation like that, and it would be a chillul Hashem in its own right to protest under such circumstances.”

However, he said the community’s hopes that the situation would “calm down” have faded. “They’re not calming down,” Pindros said. “People are being arrested more and more, again and again, and that’s the reason [the Gedolim] decided this.”

Pindros laid blame on the legal system, which he accused of pushing for increased enforcement despite the coalition agreements.

“We saw Bagatz [the High Court of Justice] today, how the judges were looking,” he said. “We saw the [Attorney General] demanding every day that she wants more arresting. The Supreme Court today said it wants more arresting. And that… we can’t agree with.”