Jerusalem – Charedi Protests Against Arrests Of Anti-conscription Yeshiva Students Continue (photos)

Jerusalem – Hardline haredi elements continued their protest on Sunday morning against the arrest of yeshiva students failing to present themselves for army service when called to do so by the IDF, with a small rally outside the Jerusalem military enlistment offices.

Approximately 100 haredi men turned out to the protest, most of whom were from the radical, anti-Zionist Eda Haredit communal association, with a small smattering of yeshiva students, with most of the protestors middle aged or some of the elderly rabbis of the Eda organization.

Several protests have been staged in recent weeks due to the arrest of a number of young haredi men who have not reported to IDF enlistment offices when called to do so.

They are following the instructions of hardline haredi leader Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, 83, who has instructed any yeshiva students studying in yeshivas allied with his faction not to cooperate with the IDF.

The small numbers of protestors at Sunday’s protest, and their relatively advanced age, was due to the fact that Auerbach has reportedly told yeshiva students not to protest in the month of Ellul, due to its proximity to the High Holy days and the importance of Torah Study in this period.

The protest was billed as the “demonstration of the 70 elders” and flyers printed for it said the “regime of destruction” wanted to test the response of haredi Jewry to the arrest of yeshiva students.

The pamphlet said that the rally was therefore designed “to protest against the evil conspiracy and to declare that we will never surrender, not to enticements and not to torture.”

The father of Yinon Avitan, 18, a yeshiva student who was arrested last week for failing to report for military service, gave his full support to his son during a conversation with The Jerusalem Post.

“His heart burns for God and for Torah study, he is doing this happily and with sef-sacrifice,” Aharon Avitan said. “He is fighting for the values he believes and the importance of Torah study,” he continued.

“We see their [the government’s] intentions, they want to make us into a type of European country without any semblance of Judaism or Jewish character. We need to do everything against this to trend and we will listen exactly to the words of our rabbis, as we are commanded by the Torah, in this regard.”

Although Auerbach’s “Jerusalem Faction” is a minority grouping in the haredi community, it is estimated that it enjoys the support of 15 percent of the non-hassidic haredi public, meaning there could be several hundred yeshiva students currently refusing to report to enlistement offices.

Yinon Avitan would actually be entitled to what amounts to a total exemption from military service if he reported to IDF enlistment offices.

Under the terms of the new legislation for haredi conscription passed in March this year, anyone who was over the age of 18 on the day the law was passed, as was Avitan, is entitled to defer his service by one year, every year, until the age of exemption at 26.

However, Auerbach’s Jerusalem Faction is calling for zero coperation with the government.

Speaking to the Post at Sunday morning’s rally, one of the protestors, who would only speak on condition of anonymity, said that the IDF could send his deferment papers to him by post and that it they wanted yeshiva students to go to the enlistement offices in order to brainwash them into enlisting.

Another student, aged 25 and studying at a yeshiva loyal to Auerbach, said that the haredi world was at war with the state and needed to fight for its values.

He also questioned why the mainstream haredi leadership, headed by Rabbi Ahaon Leib Shteinman, 100, has continued to allow its yeshiva students to begin the preliminary enlistement process when called to do so.

“I don’t know why they can’t see we’re at war,” the student said.

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