The police detained a student of the “Ponevezh” yeshiva in Bnei Brak, who did not show up at the conscription point on the grounds that he teaches Torah.
The student was detained during a police check, which revealed that he was a deserter who had failed to appear when called to the conscription station and had not previously appeared to state his reasons for refusing to serve.
The young man is identified with the “Jerusalem faction”, an extreme ultra-orthodox trend in the Lithuanian sector. Its representatives adhere to an extremely aggressive line against conscription and cooperation with the IDF. Following his arrest, the Jerusalem faction has threatened to hold demonstrations in several locations across the country and block roads during rush hours.
The “Committee to Save the Peace of the Torah” reported: “The Torah world will come out en masse to protest for the souls of young Israelis who are in the terrible ranks of the army as a result of criminal conscription. And as our great rabbi Shmuel Auerbach commanded: “The world of Torah does not appear at conscription points.”
They added: “The ultra-Orthodox public will vigorously fight against shady conscription laws whose apparent purpose is to distract yeshiva students from their studies. As part of the persistent and uncompromising fight against the draconian conscription law, which the ultra-orthodox representatives in the Knesset brought to shame with their own hands.”
Religious parties categorically insist on the adoption of a new law that will exclude the appeal of yeshiva students. The army supports the definition of quotas and the further gradual integration of the ultra-Orthodox into the army with an eye to the future. In the security forces, they fear that the adoption of the law on military duty without the Orthodox could lead to an aggravation of the crisis in the army and have a long-term negative impact on the recruitment structure of the IDF.
