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0202 – Points of View from Jerusalem

News Digest: Haredi Anti-Draft Protests

#0202_A_View_from_West_Jerusalem

“Three hours and no Light Rail! Part of the city is completely blocked. What a disgrace! We’ve had enough with the Peleg Yerushalmi!” [1]

– Posted in ‘Jerusalemites’ FB group

[Selected Comments]:
– “Only complaints… Did you move your ass on election day to go vote? The only thing that the Haredim are good at is coming together as a majority.”
– “What I and the other residents of Jerusalem have been through in the past few hours has been a nightmare! The elderly had to walk a long way just to get to a bus stop that would bring them closer to home. It was impossible for the disabled. I hope that someone, in the name of all the residents of Jerusalem, will sue this despicable group!”
– “What is Moshe Leon [2] doing with the fact that every second day there is another protest??”
[In response]: “But the Peleg Yerushalmi voted for Berkowitz! [3]”

#0202_A_View_From_Haredi_Jerusalem

Thousands Protest against Army Draft

“On Wednesday, thousands of Haredim protested the arrest of a yeshiva student by military police, following his refusal to be drafted to the army. The protests lasted hours and took place at the entrance to Jerusalem.

The student was arrested on Wednesday morning while on his way to his yeshiva. After disembarking from the light rail, he was asked by a policeman to present an ID card. When it became clear that he had been avoiding drafting to the army for the past two and a half years, he was transferred to the military police.

Following this sinful arrest, the Great Rabbis [4] instructed the Haredi population to vehemently protest the arrest, and to continue the late Rabbi Auerbach’s [5] directive to ‘make great noise’ whenever a yeshiva student is arrested.

The protesters declared that the Haredi population won’t be deterred by the threat of arrests, and will continue to refuse to cooperate with the draft of yeshiva students. They stated that they will not report to the conscription office until the ‘extermination-law’ [6] is canceled and the status of yeshiva students is reinstated, without any quota conditions.

The Israeli police, which is known for its fierce hatred of the Haredi population, arrived at the scene and exercised brutal force against the protesters. This occurred despite the fact that the protest which didn’t require any prior police approval, was conducted without using any violence. During the protest 29 individuals were arrested, many of them students avoiding military service themselves. They were later released after it was determined that the arrests were not legal. Two protesters were sent to the hospital following police brutality. ”

-Jewish Post


0202 Editor’s Notes:
[1] Peleg Yerushalmi(the Jerusalem Sector) is a minority group in the Haredi-Lithuanian community, under the leadership of Rabbi Shmuel Aeurbach. Peleg members differ from the main Haredi community in their extremist ideology, especially their refusal for any sort of collaboration with the army, not even to receive an exemption from the army. In this instance, the Peleg conducted an anti-draft protest.
[2] Moshe Leon is the newly elected mayor of Jerusalem.
[3] Ofer Berkowitz was a candidate who lost in the second round of the municipal Elections to Moshe Lion. He was widely seen as the more liberal candidate representing the more secular voters.
[4] The Great Rabbis (in Hebrew “Gdolei Israel”, literally meaning “the big ones of Israel”) is a term used to describe contemporary and prominent leading rabbis from the Haredi community. It is used especially to describe Litvak rabbis.
[5] See Editor’s Note note [1]
[6] In the past there was a general release from military service for Haredi yeshiva students. Following recent changes in the law, yeshivas are to provide the army a certain amount of its students to fill in quotas. The law is still being discussed publicly and in court.

#Protest #Draft
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