MK Eichler Quotes Letter From 12-Year-Old Chareidi: ‘Why Is Government Waging War On My Mother?’

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — During the course of a speech in the Knesset plenum Monday, MK Yisrael Eichler read a moving letter by a chareidi child whose family would be hit by the new regulations being implemented by Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman.

Eichler addressed his initial remarks to Prime Minister Bennett, stating that “I thought you had a future. You were the great promise of the right wing. I didn’t believe that you, the former director of the Yesha council, would become the prime minister of the Palestinian left. But this is not what bothers us. What bothers us is that your government has waged war against the Lord of Israel, against the children in Israel and against the Torah in Israel.

“You can’t say: “this is the responsibility of ‘Ivet the terrible’ (Avigdor Liberman), “the transport minister is making Shabbos transport and I’m not responsible.” No decree, no abomination will be implemented alone without your government and you are the prime minister.

“I accuse you, prime minister, of starving a million children in Israel. Even if you are not doing this personally, you have a gladiator doing it in your name and on your behalf.”

Eichler also accused the government ministers of “waging war on the children in Israel and inciting against the chareidi public, claiming that they are parasites and other people need to support them. This is an old libel which has cost us much blood and we will not people accuse us of being parasites in the Holy Land.”

Eichler then read out a letter from a 12-year-old boy in Ashdod who wrote that “I want to tell you about my grandmother, who was a Holocaust survivor. All her life she didn’t stop speaking about her life in those dark times. Grandma is not alive anymore. I prefer not to think what she would have said or felt if she were living and seeing how in the Jewish state in the land of Israel the finance minister want to throw me and my eight siblings onto a garbage wheelbarrow. She would certainly remember the wheelbarrows there, the musselmen and the bodies of children who were also accused of being parasites and paid with their lives for the accusations. The wheelbarrows woke grandma at night and she didn’t stop crying.

“My siblings and I live in a three and a half room apartment, our life is happy and content. We thank Hashem for our wonderful parents. Dad works until the late afternoon, he works very hard. He comes home and rests a bit and when he finishes eating, he hurries to shul where he prays and studies until a late hour. When he returns home, I’m already asleep.

“When Dad is working and studying, Mom works hard at home. She prepares food, buys clothes, ensures that we dress well, that we are happy, that we say what’s on our minds, that everyone should do their homework, that teachers should be happy.

“There’s lots of work in our home. I am the oldest and have seven children under me. Often Mom tells me that the time when she gets the most work in is from the morning until the afternoon when the youngest children are in day care. Sometimes, after the laundry, cooking and cleaning, she even manages to sleep for a half an hour or an hour, she gets up with more strength. A full-time mother. Recently Mom has gone to work for a few hours in the morning and sends the babies to day care.”

This week I saw Dad and Mom looking sad like on Tisha B’Av. When Dad went to shul, I couldn’t hold back and asked Mom what had happened? She started crying. I didn’t know what to do. I’m a kid and my mother is crying in front of me.

“When she calmed down, I brought her a glass of water. She said: ‘Have you heard of minister Liberman?’

“Sure” I answered. “Every day we say Tehillim in our school that he shouldn’t succeed in his plots against us.

“So far he’s made one decree. We can’t send Dassi and Shlomi to day care. He stopped the subsidies and it’s too expensive. We won’t be able to afford it” Mom said. I was sad and Mom didn’t add anything else.

“You hear Mr. Bennett? Since my talk with Mom I have been going around with a terrible feeling. With Liberman there’s nothing to talk about, but to you I will tell you so that you should know what ministers in your government are doing. They are waging a personal war on my mother, who works daily at home not less and sometimes more than other women who sit in an office for a few hours. Why should those women get day care and my mother not? Please explain to me Mr. Bennett, I’m waiting.”