Another yeshivah bochur was arrested in the dead of the night earlier this week at his home in Bat Yam.
Military police officers knocked at his door at 2:30 a.m., arrested him and transferred him to military prison.
The bochur, who grew up in a religious family that grew closer to Yiddishkeit over the years, submitted his army deferments in accordance with the law until the expiration of the Draft Law. After the law was annulled, he received a summons for this past January but did not report, in adherence with the instructions of Gedolei Yisrael.
He was taken to detention at the Tel Hashomer base, where he was tried in a ‘disciplinary hearing’ before a military judicial officer and sentenced to 20 days in military prison—and from there transferred to Prison 10 in Kfar Yona.
At the time of the arrest and even afterward, no contact was made with any of the organizations that assist bnei Torah imprisoned for the “crime” of limmud Torah. The Am Kodesh organization was eventually informed about the arrest, but by then, the bochur had already been tried, without receiving any legal representation.
Am Kodesh assigned Attorney Shlomo Hadad to the case.
“We will take every possible legal measure to shorten his detention,” Hadad said.
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
5 Responses
C
It is not a crime to learn Torah.
It is a crime not to serve for a set time in the army.
I am having trouble understanding how this is beyond people who have learned Gemara for so many years.
This is clearly – as clear as night vs. day – just an attempt to persecute Chreidim. There is no benefit whatsoever for the military to get this bachur to enlist. Just as there exists a military campaign against Hamas – a war – so too this is a military campaign against Bnei Yeshiva!
When you continue to cry wolf, you lose credibility and ultimately defeat your own cause. Why does Yeshiva World keep describing these imprisonments as being “for the crime of limud haTorah,” when there is no such law, arrest, or charge in the Jewish State? Soldiers and civilians alike—young and old—are free to study Torah.
The reality is that Israel, like every country, with its unique challenges has universal civic obligations such as military conscription that apply to all Jewish citizens. Yet, despite the chareidi community at best largely ignoring these laws, (or at times worse than that) the authorities have been relatively patient and judicious, with very few actual arrests.
To portray such cases as persecution “for learning Torah” is not only inaccurate—it becomes propaganda dressed up as news. However important or valuable the cause may be, dishonesty in framing undermines your credibility. Don’t be surprised if it proves self-defeating in the long run.
It is normal in countries where policies are enforced by the infamous “midnight knock on the door” that those being arrested and thrown in jail and denied right to counsel. If they want to live in a liberal democracy with civil rights, they made a big mistake in living in Israel.