Netanyahu Claimed Torah Students Were Arrested Inside Yeshivas, But the Letter Said No Such Thing

At a Saturday evening press conference on Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had received a message from Haredi hesder yeshiva heads claiming that when authorities enter yeshivas, they remove Torah students and take them to prison, which he said discourages enlistment. But there is no known case of a draft dodger being arrested inside a yeshiva, and the letter sent to him did not make that claim.

Netanyahu repeated the argument, saying the ultra-Orthodox public had shown “enormous response” to enlist, but that sending arrests into Torah study leads to the opposite result. He added, “If I told you that in some country in Europe police go into yeshivas, take young men who study Torah and put them in prison, you would be shocked.” He also said that for anyone who is not studying, he would support a special arrangement with sanctions and full legal enforcement, but with a pause to reach broad agreement, which he said is the policy he seeks.

The article says there are no known cases in which the Military Police or police did this. When military police have tried to arrest a Haredi draft evader and were caught in the act, they were surrounded by crowds and had to be extracted. When arrests have succeeded, they have triggered protests, roadblocks, and even break-ins at senior officials’ homes. Police do not assist the IDF in arresting draft evaders.

In their letter, the yeshiva heads wrote that for more than a decade they have worked to build tracks allowing Haredi men to combine Torah study with military service. They said recent arrests of yeshiva students have deeply shaken the Haredi public and asked for a one-year emergency order halting arrests of yeshiva students. They did not claim students were being arrested inside yeshivas, and instead said they wanted time to pass a law regulating Torah students and those combining study and service, calling for unity rather than further division.