The wave of arrests targeting yeshiva students who have not reported to army induction centers continues. In the early hours of Thursday morning, military police arrived at the Bat Yam home of Neaanel Maor Yitzchak, a student of Yeshiva Hameyashar led by Rav Binayahu Shmueli, and took him into custody.
According to details that surfaced only later, the 2:30 a.m. arrest was connected to new draft orders issued after the expiration of Israel’s previous conscription law. The student had regularly filed deferments while the law was in effect. After its cancellation, he was summoned this past January but did not appear, following the guidance of leading rabbinic authorities.
Following his detention, Yitzchak was brought to the Tel Hashomer holding facility, where he faced a disciplinary hearing before a military officer and was sentenced to 20 days in prison. He was subsequently transferred to Prison 10 in Kfar Yona.
For more than a day after his arrest, no contact was possible. It then emerged that he had already been tried without legal representation. Under current procedures, detainees may only communicate with a lawyer before trial, or afterward if they themselves initiate contact from prison.
After receiving instructions through his family, Yitzchak finally made contact Thursday morning with his attorney, Shlomo Hadad. “This morning the young man reached out for the first time,” Hadad said. “We will pursue every legal avenue to shorten his detention.”
{Matzav.com Israel}
Mesirus nefesh for Hashem and His Torah.