Dozens of extremist ultra-Orthodox block road outside IDF induction center to protest draft
Dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men of the extremist Jerusalem Faction are protesting outside the IDF’s main induction center outside Tel Aviv against efforts to draft members of the Haredi community.
The men repeatedly try and block the road outside the Tel Hashomer base amid scuffles with police.
The protest comes after the IDF reissued draft orders to hundreds of ultra-Orthodox teens who had not shown up the first time they were called.
The Jerusalem Faction, an extremist ultra-Orthodox group numbering some 60,000 members, is considered among the most conservative of Haredi factions and regularly demonstrates against enlistment of yeshiva students.
The IDF has stepped up efforts to draft Haredi youths since June, when the High Court of Justice said the government must draft ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students into the military since there was no longer any legal framework to continue the decades-long practice of granting them blanket exemptions from army service.
חרדים מהפלגים הקיצוניים מפגינים בשערי הבקו"ם וחוסמים את הכביש | הסיבה: 1,000 החרדים שקיבלו צו גיוס לפני חצי שנה ולא התייצבו – נקראו שוב להתייצב. לדברי המפגינים, אם לא יגיעו הם יוכרזו כעריקים וייצא נגדם צו מאסר@eli_hirschmann pic.twitter.com/MywKXtBBoR
— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) January 15, 2025