‘To Prison, Not to the Army!’ Jerusalem Faction and Haredi Community Launch Major Protests Today

Thousands of members of the Jerusalem Faction and the Haredi community are expected to take part today, Thursday, in major protests at several central locations in the Gush Dan area, following the police decision yesterday to hand over 17 yeshiva students arrested during protests outside the home of Deputy President of the Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg to a military prison. The protests are expected to paralyze major transportation arteries in the central region.

In a statement released shortly before midnight by the Jerusalem Faction, it was written: “In the past hour, the police completed the transfer of the 17 draft evaders, yeshiva students arrested in the Sohlberg events, to the military prison. In doing so, Israel Police crossed yet another red line, and effectively announced a severe escalation in the obsessive persecution carried out by state authorities against Torah scholars.”

“We will all go out tomorrow to a determined and uncompromising struggle for the honor of the Torah and those who study it, in a clear cry that will be heard throughout the country,” the statement said.

Sources in the Jerusalem Faction clarified that the recent transfers of detainees from the protests outside Justice Noam Sohlberg’s home to the military police are expected to significantly intensify the protest and expand the protest sites across the country. In the faction’s statement, it was updated that the demonstrations will take place in the afternoon at a series of strategic transportation points in the central region.

“To the protest sites, masses of Torah scholars and those who fear the word of God will stream, to stand in a great outcry and a firm, uncompromising protest, נגד the grave harm to the honor of the Torah and those who study it, and against the continued persecution of yeshiva students,” the statement said.

According to the instructions distributed, the protests will take place simultaneously at four main locations, in Beit Shemesh and the south near Nitzan Prison in Ramla, in Jerusalem at the Russian Compound, in the north and Sharon near Hadarim Prison on Road 4 between Ra’anana and Netanya, and in Bnei Brak and the center in the Abu Kabir area.

In an unusual move, members of the Badatz of the Edah HaHaredit, led by Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch, announced this afternoon that they would “go out in protests in a war of destruction with self-sacrifice at the gates of the various prisons throughout the country to stop the destroyer.” Following the directive, all kollels of the Edah HaHaredit were closed yesterday, and many avrechim joined the protests that had already begun at several locations.

In a statement from the Edah, it was said that “following the authorities’ attempt to hand over dozens of boys and avrechim to military prison, every single person is obligated to go out in protests in a war of destruction with self-sacrifice at the gates of the various prisons throughout the country.”

From the Committee to Save the World of Torah it was stated: “We will stand with all firmness and like a solid wall against the shameful hunt for the world of Torah. The dictatorial attempt by the authorities to break the spirit of the protesters, using fictitious arrests, stun grenades, batons, knees and severe violence, and now even the Shin Bet, will not deter us from the struggle against the persecution of Torah scholars in the Land of Israel.”

“The Jewish people survived for thousands of years against people greater and more threatening than you. We will survive this campaign too, and we will get through you as well,” the statement read.

As recalled, the leader of the Jerusalem Faction, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Auerbach, instructed that the protest be significantly intensified in light of the continued hunt against Torah scholars and the ongoing arrests of yeshiva students. In a harsh appeal circulated by him, it was written: “This is not the time to be silent, and there is a double and triple obligation to protest the desecration of the Torah.”