TPC Staff
The Palestine Chronicle / September 2, 2024
In June, Israel’s Supreme Court mandated the drafting of ultra-Orthodox Jews, or Haredi, into the army and banned financial aid to religious institutions whose students refused military service.
Dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews have demonstrated near a recruitment office in central Israel against mandatory military service.
Video footage on X showed protesters blocking a road leading to the recruitment office in the Tel Hashomer neighborhood on Monday, carrying signs showing opposition to their conscription as police were present at the scene.
According to a report by the Israeli YNet news website, the protesters attempted to reach the recruitment office but were blocked by police.
The Israeli military redirected recruits to an alternative location, the report said, adding that among the recruits were “about 150 young ultra-Orthodox men” who had “completed a training course in preparation for enlistment through a project that recruits Haredim (ultra-orthodox Jews) for regular military service.”
For months, the army has faced a personnel shortage amid its ongoing genocidal attack on Gaza since last October, military raids in the West Bank, and cross-border clashes with the Lebanese movement Hezbollah.
In June, Israel’s Supreme Court mandated the drafting of ultra-Orthodox Jews, or Haredi, into the army and banned financial aid to religious institutions whose students refused military service.
‘Tear it’
Israel’s former Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef subsequently urged Jewish ultra-Orthodox students, known as Haredi Yeshiva students, to reject the Israeli army’s notifications asking them to enlist in military service.
In a recording obtained by the KAN public broadcaster, the rabbi was reportedly heard saying: “All learned persons (sons of Torah) are exempt from going to the army, even if they’re deadbeats and don’t study.”
“Anyone who receives a notification to enlist must tear it and not go,” he said.
Previous protests by Haredi Jews against the mandate resulted in clashes with police.
Haredi Jews, constituting about 13% of Israel’s population of approximately 9.9 million, have long resisted military service, citing a profound commitment to Torah study, Judaism’s sacred text.
The legal requirement for all Israeli citizens over 18 to serve in the military, coupled with the controversial exemption for Haredi Jews, has sparked fierce debate for decades.
General strike
A general strike also began on Monday in a bid to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a prisoner exchange deal with the resistance movements in Gaza.
Israel’s largest and most influential trade union Histadrut called a strike on Sunday, with its chief Arnon Bar-David reportedly emphasizing the urgency of reaching a deal, stating that “a deal is more important than anything else.”
The move comes after the Israeli army announced that it had recovered the bodies of six Israeli captives in a tunnel in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of Israelis demonstrated across the country to demand a prisoner swap deal with the Palestinian Resistance in the Gaza Strip.
Protesters blocked several streets in Jerusalem, Haifa, Ashdod, Ramat Negev and Kfar Tavor, the state public broadcaster KAN said, cited by the Anadolu news agency.
Thousands also organized a mass march in front of government offices in Jerusalem.
Organizers estimated that “300,000 people” gathered in Tel Aviv and “an additional 200,000” participated in protests elsewhere across the country, The Times of Israel reported.
