"[Underestimating the Sephardi opposition to the draft is] a big mistake on their part. We will not surrender to them and we will not let them think our boys will follow them. The only way to frustrate them is for all of us to unite as one body in support of this cause. They want to draft our pupils, but [instead] we will recruit their sons to the yeshiva benches."
Rabbi Shalom Cohen
Israel HaYom reports:
Ahead of next week's expected release of the Shaked committee's findings regarding universal Israel Defense Forces enlistment laws in Israel, the ultra-Orthodox community continues to protest the draft of yeshiva students, with the Sephardi community joining the dissenting voices on Sunday.
"The authorities think that the Sephardi public are the weak link and that it will be easy to enlist them because they are not the type to protest," Rabbi Shalom Cohen at a conference of Shas rabbis opposing the "draft decree" in Jerusalem on Sunday. The conference followed demonstrations and panels held by the Ashkenazi haredi community last week.
According to Cohen, an important rabbi among Sephardi yeshivas, underestimating the Sephardi opposition to the draft is "a big mistake on their part. We will not surrender to them and we will not let them think our boys will follow them. The only way to frustrate them is for all of us to unite as one body in support of this cause.
"They want to draft our pupils, but [instead] we will recruit their sons to the yeshiva benches," Cohen added.
Various sects in the haredi community are preparing for the new recruitment legislation. The head Hasidic rabbis have banded together and will be travelling to the United States to raise awareness and funds for the struggle against the draft.
On Saturday night, a party was held for a young haredi man taken to Prison 6 after refusing to show up to a recruitment center following his first draft order. The festivities were held at Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach's home, in keeping with the his aggressive stance against enlistment.…
Cohen is infamous for, among other things, previously labeling Zionist Orthodox Jews "Amalek," the biblical archenemy of the Jewish people Jews are commanded to wipe out.
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