Every year, thousands of bnei yeshivos head home for the Shabbos following Shavuos after weeks of intense Torah learning for a short “mini break” before the continuation of the zeman.
But this past Shabbos will be remembered as one of the most tense and turbulent in recent years. Chareidi neighborhoods were filled with a deep sense of unease following a wave of arrests of yeshiva bochurim and avreichim by police officers on Friday, who then transferred them directly to the military police.
According to reports obtained by B’Chadrei Chareidim, fears of surprise police raids led to an extraordinary wave of solidarity among Chareidim. In many neighborhoods — including ones not usually considered extremist strongholds — dozens of families volunteered on Friday to host bochurim for Shabbos so they would not sleep at their registered home addresses.
“Parents are terrified that military police will knock on their doors in the middle of the night and drag their sons away,” one resident said. “Bochurim spent the nights in nearby apartments, avoiding their official addresses. Every knock on the door startled entire families.”
The fear also penetrated the walls of the yeshivos themselves. At one prominent yeshiva in Jerusalem, a line of private cars was seen outside the building on Friday. Concerned parents arrived en masse to collect their sons directly from the yeshiva, instructing them not to travel by public transportation or hitchhike — methods of travel that had suddenly become potential arrest traps.
Just hours before Shabbos, several dramatic arrest incidents intensified the crisis between the Chareidi public and law enforcement authorities.
In the first incident, a Belzer avreich was arrested in Kiryat Gat after arriving at a police station to file a complaint. However, despite the fact that the avreich had come to the station solely to assist officers and verify testimony related to a fight he had witnessed, he was arrested as a draft evader and handed over to the military police.
Attorney Shlomo Hadad, representing the avreich on behalf of the Notnim Gav organization, said the arrest directly contradicted the directive issued by Police Commissioner Danny Levy, according to which a Chareidi who comes to file a complaint or seek police assistance should not be detained because of draft-status issues.
The arrest sparked a major uproar, with hundreds gathering outside the Kiryat Gat police station in protest. The incident quickly triggered public and political pressure, and following the intervention of UTJ MK Yisrael Eichler and negotiations between police and military police officials, the avreich was released minutes before Shabbos.
Following the incident, police moved quickly to reiterate Levy’s directive: “There is no change in the commissioner’s instruction, according to which anyone who comes to file a complaint with the police, or seeks police assistance, will not be detained because of draft-evasion status. This directive is intended to allow the broader Chareidi public to approach the Israel Police and involve it in incidents requiring police treatment without fear.”
A statement from Eichler’s office said: “Through the efforts of Deputy Minister Yisrael Eichler and his staff, who spoke in recent hours with senior police and government officials and clarified the terrible injustice in the arrest of the avreich who came to file a complaint, the avreich has now been released to his home before Shabbos.”
In a separate incident, three Chabad bochurim were arrested in Lod. Later, after large crowds gathered outside the police station, the three were released.
In the third incident, two students from Yeshivas Maalos HaTorah, identified with Peleg Yerushalmi, were arrested on Highway 6. One of the detainees is reportedly the son of the Rosh Yeshivah.
The two were attempting to hitchhike when traffic police officers stopped and checked their identification cards. After discovering that they were classified by authorities as draft evaders, the officers detained them and transferred them to the military police. They spent Shabbos in detention together with approximately 40 other yeshiva bochurim and avreichim.
Peleg Yerushalmi is reportedly preparing for mass demonstrations and widespread protests at the beginning of the coming week.
“The status quo has changed. The game has become dangerous,” a Rosh Yeshiva in Jerusalem told B’Chadrei. “This Shabbos proved that we’ve entered a new stage, and nobody knows what tomorrow will look like.”
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
16 Responses
Maybe tomorrow will look like it does in any law-abiding Western nation: those who break the law risk being arrested. Failing to report for army service when you are liable in law to do so is called breaking the law. It isn’t that complicated. Whether the law is correct or reasonable is another discussion, but as long as registration with the Army draft offices is required, failure to do so is an offence that renders the offender liable to arrest. The Rabbonim who tell bochurim to hide are the ones placing the bochurim at risk. Let’s see what happens to the detainee who is reportedly the son of the Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshivas Maalos HaTorah.
“The status quo has changed. The game has become dangerous…” WHEN THE STATUS QUO CHANGES REGARDING BNEI TORAH – SO DOES THE STATUS QUO CHANGE WITH HEZBOLLAH AND BECOMES DANGEROUS!!
@Jerusalem Observer:
I’m just curious, if “the law” in any country was that being born Jewish is punishable by death, we should follow that law too?
J-Observer, as Rabbi Elefant nicely explained – this stupid law of yours took a long time to get enshrined and was designed to undercut and undermine the yeshiva world.
Fact!
Hate mongering abiding citizen that you are – be honest.
Touchdown for Neturei Karta? The seem to be offering proof that they (and the other anti-zionist) hareidim were right all along. Is it a coincidence (as if Yidden believe in such things – what a goy calls a “coincidence” we see as “השגחה פרטית”) that the war on the Bnei Torah came the same times as the collapse of international support for the existence of a Jewish state???
P.S. to Jerusalem Observer: In most western nations, persons who oppose military service for religious reasons, including students engaged in religious studies, are not subject to conscription. The rest of the world sees Israel persecuting frum Jews for refusing to serve in the military, and rethinks whether the Medinah has any right to claim to be Jewish state, since if it isn’t a continuation of the ancient Jewish entity, that indicates the Zionists are not real Jews returning home, but are mere colonists seizing land from the Arabs. Any Zionist claims to be the indigenous people of Eretz Yisrael are based on Torah, so in effects, the Zionists are burning their deed to Eretz Yisrael.
ATSOI anti Torah state of Israel
“Torah Magina uMatzila” – why are they protesting? They should just learn with more hislahavus – that should be enough to protect themselves from arrest. Why do they need to descend to Derech haTeva-type Hishtadlus like protesting? If their Torah learning is enough to protect against enemies who are trying to kill them and their fellow Jews, shouldn’t it also be enough to protect themselves from arrest?
an Israeli Yid
@Jerusalem observer
Law-abiding Western nations do not draft divinity students. They also don’t redefine the religion of their army’s inductees. Both very unlike the Zionist shmad paradise and army. And these students cannot register with that army because then they get taken.
The status quo has not changed. The state says the bochurim have to report to the army enlistment centers, but the Roshei Yeshivas say they are forbidden to do so. Given the choice between the two, most bochurim follow their Rosh Yeshiva.
Let them share the burden in accordance with Pirkei Avot 6,6. I would also imprison those who encourage and aid draft dodging.
Just an ego excuse to hate Haredim bucking the self hating corrupt, secular system. Hating everything kadosh: Torah , Shabbos, hilltop youth proactively defending themselves, Judea & Samaria settlements, Jewish shepherd youth; IDF soldiers wearing Mashiach patches and breaking pagan statues light them up more than Jewish blood. Time for dati leumi to stand together with Haredim against this hatred of everything pure.
SHAME ON YOU ywn FOR DELETING MY CLEAN COMMENTS BC THE HONEST TRUTH HURTS YOUR SHEKER!!
@observer; Israel is not a “law-abiding Western nation” the Knessed passed the Tal-law and the illegal court illegally cancelled it. Much of the A-G’s persecution of chareidim is unlawful as well!
When the law is decided by a group of gangsters in the Supreme Court and not the elected government then it’s not a law worth listening to. The law was that they were exempt for 75 years and then overnight someone decided they didn’t like it. That’s not how you change the society. Where’s the grace period, where’s the new law, where’s the phase out, where’s anything besides just sanctions and criminalization of an entire section of society while the Arabs sit and laugh? This is corruption at the highest level and it should not be given any respect or attention. And that’s not even from a religious standpoint. If you call yourself a religious Jew and advocate for someone to close the books because some politicians decided they should then you’re not a Torah respecting person
Sima; yes the status quo has changed; Bochrim used to report to the induction centre and sent home, now whether they report or not, they are being arrested.
K; yes we share the burden by spending endless hours learning – DON’T TEACH OUR ROSH YESHIVOS AND GEDOLIM WHAT IT SAYS IN PIRKEI AVOS – THEY KNOW BETTER!
Chofetz Chaim writes in Nidchei Yisroel (1890s) to Jews in AMerica and other places – try to provide Jewish education WHILE ABIDING BY THE LAWS OF THE COUNTRY (I presume he means without breaking laws of school attendance). Is this too much to ask in a country that provides opportunities to learn for multitudes far beyond what Chofetz Chaim could imagined?