Declaring that they would rather die than enlist in the Israeli occupation army, Haredi demonstrators blocked a light rail in occupied Al-Quds and scuffled with occupation police on Monday night.
Israeli media reported that dozens of ultra-Orthodox men block the tracks of the light rail in protest against their planned conscription into the occupation army.
“If you go to the army, you and dogs are equal,” they chant, riffing off of enlistment advocates’ call for “equality of the burden” between Haredi and secular Israelis.
Haredim protest against forced conscription: Closed roads, 1 rammed
The #Haredi Jews refuse to be recruited in the IOF on “biblical doctrinal” grounds which has prompted them to #protest in occupied #AlQuds under the slogan “We’d rather die than serve.” https://t.co/a0L7IBOLFy pic.twitter.com/dKCnCPC0K1
— ⚡️🌎 World News 🌐⚡️ (@ferozwala) March 18, 2024
Israeli media reported that a driver ran over an ultra-Orthodox protester who was blocking the road during the protest.
The occupation police said several of the demonstrators were also arrested for damaging vehicles. They also called police officers “Nazis” and told them to “go die in Gaza,” according to Israeli media.
The demonstrators belong to the Jerusalem Faction, an extremist Haredi group numbering some 60,000 members. Considered among the most conservative of Haredi factions, its members regularly demonstrate against the enlistment of yeshiva students.
Last month, members of the group blocked a route near the Haredi city of Bnei Brak while others blocked a light rail route in the nearby city of Petah Tikva.
Haredi men of military age have been able to avoid the draft for decades by enrolling for study in yeshivas and obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reach the age of military exemption.
A law that authorizes this exemption expired in June 2023, and a temporary regulation to extend it is set to expire at the end of March, after which the military will not be authorized to exempt Haredi young men from the draft and will need to start enlisting them amid the war in Gaza.
Source: Israeli media
