Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox block Route 4 in protest against IDF conscription
Members of extremist faction hold signs reading ‘To jail and not the army’ and ‘We will die rather than draft,’ as High Court order to begin draft comes into force
Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protesters blocked the Route 4 highway outside the central city of Bnei Brak during a demonstration against conscription to the military on Monday, the date set as a deadline for the Defense Ministry to begin drafting Haredim.
The demonstrators belonged to the extremist Jerusalem Faction, which numbers some 60,000 members and regularly demonstrates against the enlistment of yeshiva students.
Protesters held banners reading “To jail and not the army,” “We will die rather than draft,” “Stalin is here,” and “Russia is here.” Police arrested six demonstrators and forcefully cleared the highway after the demonstrators refused to leave, opening the road to traffic after two hours.
The protest came on the same day that a High Court of Justice order came into effect freezing financial support for Haredi yeshivas whose students receive annual deferrals from military service, with the Defense Ministry instructed to begin the process of drafting Haredi men.
By March 31, the government was supposed to have found a way to comply with a court ruling from 2017 that found the blanket military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to be discriminatory and illegal.
Since then, the government has failed to legislate a new law to regulate the matter that would be acceptable to the court, leading to the need to begin drafting members of the community.
Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed the ultra-Orthodox parties that he would “compensate them retroactively” if the court cut off yeshiva funding, Channel 12 news reported.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid on Monday called on the premier to “uphold the law.”
“I call on the government not to cheat, not to deceive, not to find bypass routes, not to transfer hidden budgets, not to do all the things we know they will try to do,” Lapid declared during his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset. “For a change, they will be forced to act as if they are a law-abiding government in a law-abiding country.”
The political battle over enlistment has thrown Netanyahu’s coalition into disarray, with National Unity’s Benny Gantz threatening to bolt if the Knesset passes a bill allowing blanket exemptions to remain — even if it does satisfy the court — while the Haredim have said they will quit if the government fails to pass legislation to prevent the draft.
Most Jewish Israeli men are required to serve nearly three years followed by years of annual reserve duty. Many Jewish women serve two years. But the politically powerful Haredim, who make up roughly 13% of Israeli society, have traditionally received exemptions if they are studying full-time in a yeshiva or religious seminary. The exemptions — and the government stipends many yeshiva students receive through age 26 — have infuriated the wider general public.
That frustration has peaked since Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught and the war that has ensued, as soldiers are losing their lives, and some are being asked to lengthen their reserve service amid a manpower shortage and as the threats facing Israel grow.
Sam Sokol and Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.
