Following Prof. Ronni Gamzu’s criticism surrounding the decision to allow 16,000 foreign students into Israel, Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman predictably jumped on the bandwagon and criticized the decision as well. But unlike Gamzu, who was only considering the health implications, Liberman, as usual, turned it into an anti-Chareidi attack.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein responded to the media furor on the issue, saying most of the students entering Israel according to the plan are not even Chareidi and there are strict quarantine rules in place.

“The plan applies to Masa, through which thousands of students come to Israel and Naaleh, for thousands of high-school students, university students, avreichim in yeshivos and hesder yeshivos,” Edelstein said on Channel 12 News on Sunday.

“The avreichim and yeshivos are only a portion of the thousands entering Israel through the approved outline. It’s chaval that I don’t have my phone here to show you the brachos I received from the chairman of the Jewish Agency, from Naaleh – ‘Thanks so much, you saved Zionism, you saved the institutions.'”

“The next day I open the newspaper and see a giant headline: ‘17,000 Avreichim Coming to Israel, Deri and Litzman’s Success,'” Edelstein said. “I’m sick of this, I simply have had it. It’s anti-Semitism. The people who write it know it better than you or me – they do these things intentionally.”

“I’ve had it until here with the hatred for Chareidim in every issue. It mamash smells to me of ‘these Jews are spreading disease.’ I have no other explanation.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)