During Fighting with Iran, Shas MKs Visit Draftees at Military Prison
Visit to military prison, on the morning of massive fire on Israel, the Shas party announced that Knesset members Yossi Taieb and Yoni Mashriki held a special visit this morning, Monday, to Prison 10, in order to “closely examine the situation of the detained yeshiva students and strengthen their spirits.” The party also said that during the visit they spoke with the detainees, looked into the conditions of their detention, and expressed their full support for them. Among others, they met with Michael Pitousi, who immigrated from France and whose parents live abroad, and “worked with the prison commander to fulfill his requests. Upon leaving, they spoke with his father and conveyed words of encouragement from his son.” They also met outside the prison with the father of the young man Yosef Levi, who spends many hours there every day as an expression of complete solidarity with his imprisoned son. “The obsessive persecution by the ousted attorney general against Torah scholars has crossed every line,” Taieb said. “The Shas movement will not be silent and will not relent. We will continue to fight with all the tools at our disposal until Torah scholars can sit and study in peace and receive the respect they deserve.” MK Yoni Mashriki added: “What we saw today at Prison 10 is outrageous and shocking. Yeshiva students whose only crime is studying Torah are being held behind bars. Shas will continue to stand like a sturdy wall for the sons of Torah and will not rest until they return to the study halls.”
In recent weeks, figures in the ultra-Orthodox sector have begun staging demonstrations and protests at various points across the country, in protest of the start of arrests of draft dodgers by the police, under instructions from the High Court of Justice. Last Friday, protesters arrived at the Lev HaBira police station in Jerusalem in protest of the arrest of ultra-Orthodox men who were detained during the rioting at the home of Deputy President of the Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg. Police pushed the protesters back and eventually managed to disperse them, using force. Ultra-Orthodox protesters also arrived in Beit Shemesh, where fierce clashes with police were also reported. Police added that those violating public order threw stones and objects at officers, who in response used force and means to disperse them. Last week, thousands of extremist ultra-Orthodox men took to the streets to protest what they described as the “criminal arrest” of draft dodgers and the “persecution of the Torah scholars in the Land of Israel.” Among other places, the entrances to Jerusalem were blocked near the Chords Bridge and at the Herzl-Begin intersection, and protests were also reported in the Har Hotzvim area and near the home of the head of the Traffic Division, Superintendent Haim Shmuli, in Pisgat Ze'ev.
