Protest against conscription of yeshiva students

Yeshiva students during the demonstration

The protest against conscription of yeshiva students was a mass rally held in Jerusalem on March 2, 2014. Its organizers called for a "million-man protest" against a proposed law overturning the exemption from military service for Haredi talmudical students and criminalizing those who refused to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces. From 300,000 to 600,000 people gathered in one of the largest protests in Israeli history.

Background

Aerial view of the demonstration

The protest opposed Israeli military and civil conscription of Orthodox yeshiva students, who have been exempted from military conscription or national service since 1977. A petition led to a 1998 high-court ruling that the Minister of Defense Act was not intended to exempt the Orthodox community on such a large scale, and it was decided that the issue required new legislation from the Knesset.^[1]

A public committee, headed by Justice Zvi Tal, was appointed after the 1999 Supreme Court decision. Its findings led to the 2002 deferment for yeshiva students (known as the Tal Ruling), regulating the deferral of yeshiva students with the rationale that their religious studies constitute national service. The ruling, which provided a timeline of five years, was extended an additional five years in 2007. During the summer of 2012, the court ruled that the law was unjust and must expire.^[2] With its expiration IDF service is mandatory for all members of the Haredi community, with a penalty (imprisonment for up to five years) for those who refuse to enlist. However, the law is not enforced against members of the Haredi community by authority of the Defense Minister.

After several unsuccessful attempts to draft a new law (such as the Plesner Committee), the Special Committee for the Equal Sharing of the Burden Bill^[3][4] (also known as the Shaked Committee after its chairwoman, Bayit Yehudi MK Ayelet Shaked)^[5][6][7] was formed. During its deliberations (ongoing at the time of the protest) the committee proposed a law establishing annual quotas for the drafting of yeshiva students for military or national service and calling for criminal sanctions against draft evaders if the quotas are not met by mid-2017. The bill would mandate a gradual increase in recruitment levels of yeshiva students. Each year 1,800 promising students would be granted exemptions to continue their studies, and yeshiva students beyond draft age would be allowed to enter the workforce.^[8]

Preparation

Women praying for an end to conscription

On February 24, 2014, the leaders of Agudath Israel, Degel HaTorah and Shas gathered for a conference in Bnei Brak and decided on a demonstration a week after the conference. All haredi boys and men over age nine were summoned to attend.

Leading rabbis from the conservative wing of the national religious community (including Shmuel Eliyahu, Mordechai Sternberg, Micha Halevi and Shlomo Aviner) supported the rally,^[9] and a group of nationalist haredi rabbis issued a proclamation calling on the public to participate in the religious, Zionist rally.^[10] Other groups, such as the Tzohar and Beit Hillel rabbinical associations,^[9] and rabbis from the religious Zionist community (including Haim Druckman)^[9][11] opposed the protest. After harsh commentary by a haredi newspaper about Religious Zionist leader Haim Druckman, Yehoshua Shapira (rabbi of the Ramat Gan yeshiva) and the Association of Community Rabbis (led by Chief Rabbi of Tzfat Shmuel Eliyahu) canceled plans to attend the "million-man march".^[12][13] Roads in the capital around the protest area were blocked in the early afternoon and Route 1, the main highway between the capital and the coast, was closed to private vehicles from 2:00 to 7:00 p.m.^[14]

Demonstrations

Child holding a sign

Hundreds of thousands of protesters lined the streets surrounding the area, with Jaffa Road designated for women, despite unfavorable weather. Many leaders of the Haredi community, including the rabbis of Gur, Belz and Vizhnitz, Lithuanian rabbis Aharon Leib Steinman, Chaim Kanievsky and Shmuel Auerbach, Sephardic rabbis Shalom Cohen and Shimon Desserts and other members of the Great Council of Torah and the Council of Torah Sages attended the rally. Members of the orthodox rabbinical community (including Yitzhak Tuvia Weiss, chief Rabbis David Lowe and Isaac Joseph, and Hasidic leaders, rabbis and public figures) were also in attendance. Small groups and religious Zionist rabbis, including Shmuel Eliyahu and Yaakov Shapira, were present.

The organizers, who called for a "million-man protest"^[15] by men and boys aged nine and older,^[16] estimated attendance at 500,000; police estimated a crowd at 300,000.^[15] Some believed that 600,000 were present, which led to a public recitation of the Chacham HaRazim blessing.^[17][18] All three major Jewish streams (Lithuanian, Hasidic and Sephardic) were represented.^[19] The peaceful protest was one of the largest in Israel's history, with loudspeaker noise heard across Jerusalem. It was secured by about 3,500 police and other security personnel.^[15] No speeches were made at the rally, but at its end statements received by the Council of Torah Sages were read opposing the conscription of yeshiva and kolel students.^[20] A simultaneous protest in London drew 4,000 demonstrators,^[21] and on March 9 (a week later) 50,000 Orthodox Jews demonstrated in New York.^[22]

References