Former Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef said on Saturday night that U.S. President Donald Trump’s hostile turn toward Israel was linked to efforts to draft yeshiva students. "Was it for nothing that Trump turned against us? It is because of the decrees against Torah students," he said.
Yosef also sharply attacked Israel’s attorney general over arrests connected to the enlistment campaign. "What do you want from us? Since Ben-Gurion, may the names of the wicked rot, yeshiva students have been exempt from enlistment," he said. He added, "Stop arresting! This woman is trash and wicked! She is the one giving the order to arrest."
The dispute over drafting ultra-Orthodox students continued to escalate last week, when thousands from the Jerusalem Faction gathered for a major protest outside Military Prison 10 in Beit Lid. They were protesting the detention of yeshiva students classified as draft evaders and the transfer of detainees arrested during a protest outside the home of Deputy President of the Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg.
Police estimated about 10,000 demonstrators were at the scene, including the Gerrer Rebbe, with more still arriving. The protest blocked Route 57 eastbound at Beit Lid Junction and Route 57 westbound at Kfar Yona Junction. Police urged drivers to avoid the area and use alternate routes, while police and army forces were deployed there. The Jerusalem Faction said the past few days had seen the army begin taking back yeshiva students who had been released after their arrests at the Sohlberg protest.
