[Photo Album 2 Below] As reported yesterday here on Matzav, thousands gathered in Meah Shearim yesterday to protest against recruitment of bnei yeshiva to the Israeli army and to express their opposition to new amendments to the Equal Service law.
In late November, the Knesset approved an amendment to the Equal Service law, which rolled back the 2014 reforms on chareidi recruitment into the IDF and scrapped all communal penalties imposed if annual quotas for chareidi soldiers were not met.
The protest was held even though there is currently no requirement for chareidi enlistment in the IDF.
The new version of the law pushed them off all communal penalties until 2023. So for the next 8 years, there will be no penalties for lack of chareidi recruitment, providing, in essence, blanket exemptions from the army for Torah study during the next 8 years.
Still, protest organizers said that the protest was held because of the claim that “the United Torah Judaism party has in effect agreed to the principle of chareidi enlistment by accepting the amendments.”
ALBUM 2 OF PHOTOS FROM THE PROTEST
{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}
Why does the press report as if there is no charedi draft requirement? There certainly is. All the amendments did was push off and delay the criminal punishment phase. Currently, people who want to sit and learn can get a deferral so long as they are learning full-time in yeshiva. Any charedi young man who is not in full-time yeshiva learning, up to age 22, certainly does have an obligation and can in fact go to jail if he does not serve in the IDF. Draft notices are still being received and recruitment is still going on, and the only way to avoid service in the IDF is if you are in full-time learning, but as of right now, any boy who does not want to sit and learn full-time must serve. It is also ILLEGAL to work.