After Haredi anti-draft riots, Liberman looks to punish ‘inciting’ yeshivas

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Wednesday he would take action against two ultra-Orthodox yeshivas after their students took part in riots protesting the military draft.

On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, police arrested dozens of ultra-Orthodox people for the violent protests, in which they blocked roads, set dumpsters on fire and threw rocks at officers, police said.

“Minister Liberman will never, under any circumstances, ignore these riots and the severe incitement that occurred during them against IDF soldiers,” his office said in a statement.

The catalyst for the riots was the arrest of a 24-year-old yeshiva student earlier in the week. He was arrested at a separate demonstration in Jerusalem and once in police detention it was discovered that he was a draft dodger.

In response to the protests, Liberman asked Israel Beytenu MK Oded Forer to “work with relevant government ministries to stop the funding” of the Ma’alot HaTorah yeshiva in Jerusalem and the Grudna yeshiva in Ashdod, which are both led by Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, a staunch anti-draft advocate.

“This is in response to the riots and inciting protests that were held by Rabbi Auerbach’s students over the arrest of an IDF draft-dodging yeshiva student,” Liberman said.

The defense minister also ordered his ministry to reconsider the automatic draft deferral granted to students of those two yeshivas, his office said.

Members of the ultra-Orthodox, also known as Haredi, community are generally exempted from otherwise compulsory military service, provided they visit an army enlistment office and get the required permission. Some, however, refuse to do this as a form of protest against the state.

Without the permission, those Haredi men are legally considered draft dodgers and open to military detention, as was the case with the 24-year-old yeshiva student earlier this week.

While some ultra-Orthodox rabbis have begun encouraging their communities to join the military, others — including Auerbach — have maintained staunch opposition to the practice on ideological grounds.

Eighteen people in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh were arrested earlier Wednesday for “disturbing the peace” during protests. Dozens more were arrested across the country, a spokesperson said.

Some 50 people had been arrested on Tuesday evening when demonstrators clashed with police while trying to block key roads and junctions in Jerusalem, Modiin, Beit Shemesh and Bnei Brak.

There have been regular demonstrations against the draft by the ultra-Orthodox community.

At the Bar-Ilan Junction in the capital Tuesday, dozens of protesters intermittently blocked the road and caused heavy traffic congestion in approach roads. Police arrested 15 people at that demonstration. Other protesters tried to block Shivtei Yisrael Street in Jerusalem and were dispersed by police.

“Protest is a democratic right and the Israel Police will allow it, but disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace is a criminal offense,” police said in a statement.

The Hebrew-language Ynet news site reported that the organization behind the demonstrations, the Committee for Saving the Torah World, announced in a statement that it would continue to protest against army service.

“The community of the God-fearing will stand like a bulwark and without compromise and absolutely refuse to cooperate with the regime plans to assimilate the Haredi public into Israeli society, and its licentious and heretical way of life.”

Reforms passed in the Knesset in 2014 — which sought to do away with the exemptions and gradually increase ultra-Orthodox recruitment — met with fierce opposition from many in the religious community, who perceive the army as a threat to their way of life.

In late November of last year, the Knesset approved an amendment to the Equal Service Law, dramatically rolling back 2014 reforms and scrapping collective penalties to be imposed if annual quotas for ultra-Orthodox draftees were not met.