Dozens of Charedim from Peleg blocked the tracks of the Jerusalem light rail on Jaffa Street and scuffled with police on Monday to protest efforts to end Charedi military draft exemptions.
Chanting “If you go to the army, you and dogs are equal,” a riff on enlistment advocates’ call for “equality of the burden” between Charedi and secular Israelis, the demonstrators attempted to disrupt traffic and public transportation. Police later said they had opened the road.
The protest comes as a law authorizing the exemption is set to expire at the end of March, after which the military will no longer be authorized to exempt Charedi men from the draft. According to the IDF’s Personnel Directorate, a record 66,000 young Charedi men received an exemption from military service over the past year, amid a significant manpower shortage.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has called drafting Charedim “the need of the hour,” but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly hopes to postpone their enlistment until July while the coalition works to formulate a new conscription law.
Peleg, which has some 60,000 members, regularly demonstrates against the enlistment of yeshiva students. Last month, members blocked routes in Bnei Brak and Petach Tikva.
For decades, Charedi men have avoided the draft by enrolling in yeshivas and obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reach the age of exemption. The temporary regulation extending this exemption is set to expire at the end of March.
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13 Responses
I thought after injuring elderly people, they outlawed water canons?
Why only Peleg protesting – what about all the others? When are they making a massive protest against drafting BNEI TORAH NOT chareidim?
Why would “Yeshiva World News” publish such a biased, inaccurate article?!
“…the military will no longer be authorized to exempt Charedi men from the draft” and “Charedi men have avoided the draft by enrolling in yeshivas” are slanted and misleading.
There never was a law exempting Charedi men from army service. The law was to enable full-time Torah students to receive yearly deferments, whether Charedi or religious-Zionist (known as תורתו אומנותו, based on authorization letter from a recognized yeshiva or kollel), all the while that they engage in full-time Torah study. Otherwise, Charedi men are not exempt from army service and never were. The second anti-Torah slur makes it sound like the reason that most Charedi men enroll in yeshiva is to avoid the draft, rather than wanting to learn Torah. There are SOME who do that, but certainly not most. That is a libelous statement – מוציא שם רע למהדרין – and unworthy of a website that claims to report “yeshiva world news”.
We must compromise and find achdus. Even in Europe not everyone learned 24/7, we needed farmers and ditch diggers etc as more of the population becomes Torah observant that means more Torah observant people will need to take non Torah jobs, like soldier, engineer, etc. The nation functioned previously with Torah observant soldiers in the times of Yehoshua and Dovid. There isn’t a reason we cannot do this today.
Good for them. If Torah Jews go to the army, there will be no Torah left.
They seem to have a fighting spirit and time off learning. Should be the first to be drafted.
Those who refuse to serve in the military out of opposition to the zionist medinah (rather than because they are committed to learning Torah full time) should be regarded as conscientious objectors, and given the same sort of exemptions as are giving to Muslims (and the same reduction in civil right and economic opportunities).
So beautiful. They also yelled at soldiers/police “Nazis, go die in Gaza”. Any Peleg Rosh Yeshiva who is not מוחה on this – עתיד ליתן את הדין!
akuperma, there’s one little difference. The Arabs are the enemy, and are not the target of Hamas. But all Yidden are the target of Hamas, weather these guys understand it or not. If they do not learn, what does the “Medina” have to do with this? If a church gave you a place to live you probably wouldn’t want to live in it (it’s also probably forbidden), but can you live in it and then say it’s against your beliefs to pay rent? If it’s טמא enough not to pay rent then how can you live in it and enjoy it? Unless you mean the Army isn’t set up for a frume yid, but if that’s the only thing, there still should be הכרת הטוב for what they do.
These bored batlanim should be enlisted. Instead of blocking traffic during rush hour and making a chilul hashem they can go to Gaza and fight Hamas.
I used to work with chilonim. Before the peleg protests they didn’t agree with the haredi draft deferral, but they understood their position. Now they think that bochurim are entitled, arrogant brats who need military discipline.
MDshweks: Those who oppose the medinah, perceive the zionists as just as much a threat as Hamas. The theory is that coercing Jews to give up Torah and Mitsvos is just as bad as killing. Rather than attempting to conscript those whose loyalty could never be assumed, Israel should recognize conscientious objection (which almost all democratic countries do), and in effect treat anti-zionist Jews the way they treat Arabs who choose not to serve in the military (e.g. significant employment discrimination and restrictions on receiving some government benefits).
Why can’t Israel treat the protesters appropriately. Calmly arrest one by one, take them to the police station, book them over night, ticket to appear in front of a judge.
First offense is a warning.
Second time is one week in jail.
Third time is a month in jail.
Each subsequent time is 6 months in jail.
No need to beat people or treat them with violence.
Those who demonstrate, along with their “leaders” should be required to perform some type of “alternative service” since it would be irrational to place them into any combat unit where their behavior could endanger others. Perhaps having them clean out the latrines or dig ditches would be a good starting point and provide them with essential life skills they could use once they complete their service obligations.
When secular Jews see Chareidim
blocking car traffic or blocking train traffic:
Does that make them LOVE Torah more,
or does it make them HATE Torah more?
Does that make them LOVE Chareidim more,
or does it make them HATE Chareidim more?
PLEASE, thing about it!