Draft Evaders Handed Over, and Jerusalem Faction Warns of “Protests Unseen Before”

Haredi protests against the arrest of draft evaders were held today (Wednesday) across the country, after the Jerusalem Faction urged Haredi demonstrators to come to several protest sites, including Nitzan Prison in Ramla, the Russian Compound detention facility in Jerusalem, Hadarim Prison near Route 4, and Abu Kabir Prison. The Jerusalem Faction, an extreme group in the Lithuanian Haredi stream that organizes many protests against the enlistment of yeshiva students, organized the protest against the transfer of 19 yeshiva students who are draft evaders and were arrested last week by the military police, in an attempt to prevent the move. The extreme Haredi group Edah HaHaredit later joined the protests as well, saying, “It is incumbent upon us to go out in protests in a war of annihilation, with self-sacrifice, at the gates of the various prisons across the country, to stop the destroyer.”

The police said three suspects were arrested for public disorder in Jerusalem. It was also claimed that the rioters attacked police officers, threw objects and refused to obey instructions from the forces at the scene. Despite the protests, all 19 draft evaders from the yeshiva were transferred to the military police. The faction promised, ahead of protests expected to be held again tomorrow in the center of the country, that “they will be protests never seen until today.”

The protests that erupted today across the country stemmed from the police’s intention to transfer 19 of the demonstrators who protested outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg to the military police, after it was discovered that they were draft evaders. Last Wednesday, Haredi protesters against the enlistment of yeshiva students הגיעו to Sohlberg’s home in the settlement of Alon Shvut, caused damage there, and smashed the windshield of his car. Police detained about 50 suspects at the scene. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack: “Law enforcement authorities must apply the full severity of the law to the rioters.”