The organization "Truth for Jacob in Israel" sent a harsh letter to Naftali Bennett today (Monday), demanding that he publicly retract his statement that "evasion is killing our soldiers" - and issue an apology.
According to the letter, a complaint has been filed with the police to examine the criminal aspects of the inciting speech, and the organization says that they intend to contact organizations in Israel and around the world that deal with preventing incitement.
The letter states that Bennett's statement was not an outburst, but "a calculated statement that attributes responsibility for the loss of soldiers' lives to an entire civilian population.".
The organization defines this as "a serious, outrageous and unprecedented collective accusation that crosses all boundaries of legitimate discourse in a democratic country" - and warns that things of this kind could "pave the way for real harm to this public by extremist elements.".
The organization attacks the use of the term "evasion" towards the yeshiva community, noting that this is a "serious distortion of reality.".
According to him, this community devotes approximately 108 consecutive months to Torah study - the longest period of national service of any track in the country, compared to 32 months of regular service.
It is also claimed that Bennett focuses only on the ultra-Orthodox public, while ignoring many other sectors that do not serve in the army.
The organization demands that Bennett retract his statement, clarify that he does not attribute responsibility for the deaths of soldiers to the Torah scholars, and publish a "clear, explicit, and unambiguous" apology - while warning that in the absence of an appropriate response, legal and public proceedings will be taken.
This morning, Bennett was interviewed on Channel 2 - and said: "I'll say something I haven't said before, but it needs to be said - evasion is killing our soldiers.".
Bennett left no room for thinking that this was a slip of the tongue, and emphasized: "This is a tough sentence - and I stand behind it. Our soldiers, especially the reservists, are being severely worn out. It harms operational performance, sometimes they can't hold a point they've already captured, so they have to retreat and capture again - and it costs human lives.".
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