Thousands of Haredim protest conscription in Jerusalem — Jerusalem Post
Thousands of members of the ultra-Orthodox Haredi community in Jerusalem, Israel, took part on Tuesday in a march against conscription into the Israel Defense Forces. Participants in the rally welcomed community members who had been released from military prison.
March in Jerusalem
The event took place near Kikar HaShabbat Square, as well as on Shmuel HaNavi and Bar-Ilan streets. As the Jerusalem Post reports, citing KAN News, the march was organized by the Jerusalem Faction (Peleg Yerushalmi), a Haredi movement opposed to conscription into the Israeli army.
Videos from the scene show signs with slogans against conscription and the Israel Defense Forces. In particular, they called on people not to enlist and to release prisoners from Prison No. 10. Another sign said that the protesters were not prepared to sacrifice their children for Zionism.
Politicians' reaction
Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot criticized the march and linked it to the upcoming elections. According to him, the elections will be a choice between a “government of evasion” and a “Zionist government of conscription.”
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Yisrael Beiteinu party leader Avigdor Lieberman also condemned the event, calling it a parade in honor of released draft evaders. He called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz to condemn the protest and demanded an investigation into the distribution of funds among those he called evaders.
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that under the current government, heroes are not military personnel but those who avoid conscription. He called evasion of service a security threat and accused Netanyahu and Shas party leader Aryeh Deri of paying billions of shekels to evaders. This is Bennett's statement.
Earlier, Bennett, Lieberman, and Yoaz Hendel, leader of the Reservists — Economic Party, criticized a similar anti-conscription Haredi march in Bnei Brak. They linked such events to the election campaign and the dispute over the conscription law.
