Tel-Chai Nation

There was a riot last week against supposed violation of an ancient burial site (as though the dead matter more than the living), and now, Haredis are once again protesting army service, and the arrest of a draft dodger:

Hundreds of haredi men and youths associated with the Jerusalem Faction, a hardline grouping of the non-hassidic haredi community, staged violent demonstrations on Sunday evening in several locations across the country.

Protests at the arrest of a haredi yeshiva student who refused to present himself at IDF enlistment offices took place in Jerusalem, as well as on major traffic arteries including road junctions close to Bnei Brak, Modi’in Illit, Beit Shemesh, Ashdod, and several other locations.

The police arrested at least four haredi protesters for trying to block major roads and thoroughfares.

The yeshiva student in question, Eliyahu Cohen, attends the Orhot David yeshiva in Jerusalem, which is associated with the Jerusalem Faction, a breakaway group from the mainstream non-hassidic haredi Degel Hatorah political movement.

In accordance with the instructions of the movement and its spiritual leader Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, 83, Cohen has repeatedly refused to present himself at IDF enlistment offices after receiving conscription orders and was originally arrested in March 2014 for failing to report, which prompted mass demonstrations around the country.

Cohen is being held in the IDF military’s Prison Six facility near Atlit and has reportedly begun a hunger strike.

According to the Committee to Save the Torah World, a body associated with the Jerusalem Faction, Cohen received another enlistment order last month, and upon refusing to do so was imprisoned for 20 days. He was subsequently released and again asked to report to the recruitment office to enlist – an order he refused, which lead to his incarceration.

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit confirmed this sequence of events but said that Cohen was not on hunger strike.

I'm sure he's not bothered about prison either. But Auerbach should be arrested for encouraging lawbreaking. There's been another demonstration - and riot - last night against the army again:

Several hundred ultra-Orthodox demonstrators belonging to a radical faction under influential Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach gathered in Jerusalem's Shabbat Square to protest against the arrest of a yeshiva student who failed to show up to the military induction center on the day of his enlistment.

Protesters held signs against military enlistment and shouted slogans against joining the army. Throughout the demonstration, protesters set garbage cans alight and blocked roads in the area. The official reason given for the demonstration was the arrest of the yeshiva student, but it was actually a part of an ongoing struggle between two main Lithuanian Jewish streams.

One of those streams is led by Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman and the other by Auerbach, who insists on maintaining a militant line against anything related to the state.

In that case, they should clear out and not take our tax money either. So this was also an excuse for power struggles. Most offensive indeed, and the two rabbis should both be prosecuted for the harm they're causing. The country could use some recruits right now, and all they're thinking about is undermining the country's ability to defend itself properly. It's truly disgusting.

Labels: anti-semitism, dhimmitude, haredi corruption, islam, Israel, Jerusalem, jihad, military, Moonbattery, terrorism, war on terror