Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) protests raged throughout Jerusalem and central Israel on Thursday as tensions continued to escalate over the issue of IDF conscription.
One area with mass illegal protests was along Highway 4 near Bnei Brak, where haredim threw stones at officers, calling them “Nazis,” Israel Police stated.
Footage from the protests showed various altercations between the police and haredi demonstrators on the highway, in which some protesters were held down by officers.
Ahead of the protests, on Thursday morning, the front-page headline for haredi newspaper Yated Ne’eman called for “war” against the government.
The daily is affiliated with the haredi Lithuanian faction, Degel Hatorah, which forms part of the United Torah Judaism party. UTJ had quit both the government and the coalition in mid-July due to a fallout in negotiations over the haredi conscription law proposal.
Above the large word “war” that stood boldly in the center of the newspaper’s front page was the accompanying text: “When the country of Israel tramples over the red line, the predatory power will need to confront the world of Torah.”
The publication followed the arrest of two yeshiva students for draft dodging, causing leading haredi figure Rabbi Dov Landau to call for an “emergency consultation meeting” at his home on Wednesday evening.
Landau went to visit the students in prison on Thursday, saying, “He cannot sleep knowing that yeshiva students are in prison for the sin of studying Torah,” his spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post.
MK Meir Porush of the UTJ called for the preparation of “the most far-reaching measures to protect the world of Torah by every legal means at our disposal and to prevent the continued persecution of Torah learners,” in a Thursday statement.
Later in the day, Porush left the Knesset to protest outside the Justice Ministry in a demonstration against the arrest of the two yeshiva students.
“I cannot sit calmly in my office while squads roam the streets at night arresting yeshiva students,” Porush stated.
Israeli politicians react to the Yated Ne’eman's statements
Opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) responded to the Thursday morning newspaper headline directly, writing, “Update for Yated Ne’eman readers: There is indeed a war in Israel, but it’s in a different place, and people are truly being killed in it.”
MK Zvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionist Party responded as well, writing, “There is no one who pours more fuel on the fire of hatred and division against the haredi public than Yated Ne’eman editor Yisrael Friedman. He knows very well that right now in the State of Israel, countless people are paying the price of the terrible, real war taking place outside.”
MK Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) remained firm on his stance of haredi conscription writing, “Anyone who evades military or civil service will not receive benefits or affirmative action. If they don’t contribute, they won’t receive.”
“No enlistment – no vote,” he added in his Thursday morning post on X/Twitter.
The flare in tensions also comes in the aftermath of MK Boaz Bismuth’s appointment as the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman.
MK Yuli Edelstein, who had previously headed the committee leading the efforts to pass the bill that would enforce the haredi conscription, was officially ousted from his position on Monday.
Edelstein’s ouster was due to the fallout in negotiations over the proposed law he was working on, which had also led to the departure of the government’s other haredi party, Shas. However, Shas still remains in the Knesset’s coalition.
The direction of the conscription law is expected to shift after Bismuth’s appointment, who, immediately, upon election, stated his intention to head on a “new path with it.”
The new direction of the draft law has been scheduled to be discussed on Tuesday at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Bismuth had also requested that the Knesset hold discussions on the bill during the last two weeks of August, when it is fully in recess and no longer convenes committee meetings. However, the Knesset did not approve the request, Bismuth’s spokesperson told the Post.
Bismuth appears to be pushing for a resolution to the conscription law that would satisfy both secular and haredi individuals, expressing his belief in reaching a “historic solution” after his appointment.
He has been setting meetings with reservists, with the aim of “hearing all voices,” his spokesperson told the Post.
Bismuth also stated that “the army and the Torah should go together” as he congratulated the first group of soldiers from the IDF haredi Hashmonaim Brigade, who received their berets on Wednesday.