Haredi Protestors Arrested During Draft Dodger Demonstration
Israel Police arrested about 40 haredi Orthodox protesters in the southern city of Ashdod during a demonstration on behalf of four yeshiva students arrested for missing their army induction.
Hundreds of haredi men and boys protested Monday in Ashdod, Jerusalem and at major intersections in the area against the arrest of the yeshiva students, who did not appear at the Israel Defense Forces recruitment center as required by law.
The students reportedly could have requested and received a draft exemption.
The protesters are followers Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, leader of a non-Hasidic haredi faction who has called on his students to not deal with the army at all, including showing up for preliminary processing in order to request an exemption from the military draft, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The group did not have a permit for the demonstration.
The four yeshiva students reportedly were arrested last week.
Under a law passed in March 2014, haredi men will be criminally charged for evading the draft, but the penalties will not go into effect until 2017. The Tal Law, which allowed haredi men to defer army service indefinitely, was invalidated by Israel’s Supreme Court in February 2012 and expired in August that year.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!