Military police officers raided the homes of two Sephardi bnei yeshivos in central Israel early Thursday morning in an attempt to arrest them for “draft dodging.”

Peleg Yerushalmi’s “black alert” warning system brought dozens of protesters to both scenes, successfully thwarting the arrests, as the police wanted to avoid violent confrontations.

The first attempted arrest was at the home of a bochur in Herzliya, and the second was at a home in Ramat Hasharon.

In Herzliya, bochurim entered the family home after the police left the scene and danced in celebration.

On Wednesday, another ben yeshivah, Yitzchak Revivo, a talmud of the Rabbeinu Chaim Ozer Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, was arrested at his home in Ramat Gan.

After a hearing at the military court, Revivo was sentenced to 17 days behind bars at Prison 10.

The Sephardi community is furious that almost every ben yeshivah arrested by military police is Sephardi. The Noar K’Halacha organization is taking legal action against what they claim is military enforcement targeting only members of the Sephardi community.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)