“No power in the world will succeed in breaking the Torah World.…We have survived persecution for thousands of years. Sadly, this time the persecutors are our own brothers and flesh and part of the Jewish people, but we will overcome them as well. [We] do not recognize any power as [being] able to determine what yeshiva students should do other than their rabbis.”
Haredim Riot In Beit Shemesh Over Draft Dodger Arrest
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Haredim rioted in Beit Shemesh today to protest the recent arrest and imprisonment of a haredi yeshiva student who dodged the draft, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The student failed to report to the IDF induction center because his rabbi, Ashkenazi haredi rebel faction leader Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, had previously issued orders prohibiting any haredi yeshiva student from reporting for the draft.
A second haredi yeshiva student, also reportedly a follower of Auerbach, was reportedly arrested last week after he, too, refused to report to the IDF induction center. It is unclear whether haredi rioters in Beit Shemesh were aware of the second arrest.
Israel has not actually drafted any haredi yeshiva students who have received induction notices and reported to an IDF induction center because Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has chosen to defer the draft of these yeshiva students until after a new draft law is passed – something Ya’alon and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, both of the Likud Party, have repeatedly tried to obstruct. Their behavior thas angered the High Court of Justice, religious freedom and liberal groups, and hundreds of thousands of average Israelis who have all demanded equality in military service.
However, Likud’s only natural Knesset allies are haredi political parties and many observers believe the only way Netanyahu will be able to retain power if his government falls is to make a coalition deal with haredim.
Haredi rabbinic and political leaders are uniformly and vehemently opposed to any draft of haredi yeshiva students.
The mainstream Ashkenazi haredi faction, lead by Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman, ordered its yeshiva students to report to the IDF induction center when called but told them to refuse to fill out or sign any forms. None of these haredi yeshiva students appear to have been arrested.
Earlier today in Beit Shemesh, several hundred haredim tried to block a main road and attacked with police. Four haredim were reportedly arrested.
Dozens of haredi yeshiva students from Auerbach’s faction may have previously refused to report to the IDF induction center when called and the Jerusalem Post reported that several of these haredi draft dodgers were arrested over the last six months, but in those cases, no protests took place and no public outcry was made.
The average term of imprisonment for this type of draft dodging is only about 14 days.
Most of those arrested and imprisoned agree to complete preliminary IDF processing and are then apparently exempted from the draft by the government.
However, a small number of those haredi yeshiva students arrested earlier reportedly continued to refuse to complete the induction process and were sent back to prison. Eventually they reportedly agreed to complete the first stage of the induction process and were released from prison.
Yishaiyahu Wein, identified as a “senior figure” in Auerbach’s faction by the Jerusalem Post, reportedly told the paper that the most recent arrests of the two haredi yeshiva students from Auerbach’s faction proved that, “no power in the world will succeed in breaking the Torah World.…We have survived persecution for thousands of years. Sadly, this time the persecutors are our own brothers and flesh and part of the Jewish people, but we will overcome them as well.”
Wein reportedly said that Auerbach’s position is “do not recognize any power as able to determine what yeshiva students should do other than their rabbis.”