Tel-Chai Nation

In a number of places around the country, Haredis once again rioted - very violently too, I might add - in revenge for budget cuts for draft dodgers:

Several thousand ultra-Orthodox men rioted and protested across Israel on Thursday following the arrest of a yeshiva student a day earlier for failing to present himself at an IDF enlistment office.

Violent scenes unfolded in several locations, with the police deploying water cannons, mounted officers and riot police to disperse agitators and prevent major traffic arteries from being blocked.

The protesters were also demonstrating against the High Court of Justice’s decision this week to halt the state’s payments of stipends to several thousand full-time yeshiva students, and against legislation being forged to compel haredim to serve either in the army or in civilian positions.

Leaders of the hard-line Jerusalem Faction, a haredi grouping opposed to any cooperation or compromise on the issue of enlistment, called the demonstrations.

Protesters gathered at major traffic intersections at the entrances to Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Ashdod and Modi’in Illit in order to stop traffic. In addition, large numbers of rioters fought with the police in several locations.

Police arrested a total of 34 protesters around the country.

Three officers were wounded, one due to a stone a rioter threw at him.

In Jerusalem, underneath the Bridge of Strings at the entrance to the city, haredim tried to block traffic. Police dispersed the protesters using water cannons and arrested 12 protesters for disturbing the peace.

At the Coca-Cola junction on Route 4 near Bnei Brak, some 2,000 haredim demonstrated; police arrested three of them, and one officer was injured.

Southbound traffic on Route 4 was blocked for a while in the Petah Tikva area. Police later reopened the roadway, but traffic remained heavy.

Thirteen protesters were arrested at the entrance to Ashdod for disturbing public order and assaulting police, and two officers were wounded. Later, dozens of demonstrators gathered outside a police station in the city and set fire to a patrol vehicle.

Demonstrations also took place outside Beit Shemesh and Modi’in Illit.

The yeshiva student who was arrested on Wednesday, Yitzhak Zer, is from Ashdod. He was taken to the IDF’s Prison Six near Haifa.

Zer, 18, is associated with the Jerusalem Faction that has taken a more militant line against enlistment to the army than the mainstream ultra-Orthodox leadership.

The faction, led by Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, instructs yeshiva students loyal to it not to present themselves at IDF enlistment offices when they receive call-up orders.

This is what they're interrupting the country daily routines for? That rabbi should be prosecuted for obstruction and inciting violence for all the wrong reasons. And where were any of these thugs when past left-wing politicians were selling out their country to the PLO? I guess they thought those stipends were more important than Israel.

Update: besides that Auerbach, there's another rabbi guilty of inciting violence:

Rabbi David Zicherman, one of the organizers of the Jerusalem protests, called on the ultra-Orthodox public to start a civil disobedience movement and stop paying taxes.

“You are pushing us into a corner,” he said of the government. “We will start a war with the State of Israel, and it will burn like wildfire. We, Holocaust survivors, are now encountering a spiritual Holocaust.”

“They will fail in their attempt to lead us to annihilation,” he warned. “We shall not compromise nor negotiate.”

People like him never fought convincingly against nazism during WW2, thinking prayer and study alone will keep away the evil mindsets setting up bad education systems. And he has the gall to accuse the very country now giving him the sanctuary he didn't have in Europe of trying to cause a "spiritual holocaust"?

Zicherman is another victimologist turning against his fellow Jews for all the wrong reasons.

Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Jerusalem, military, Moonbattery