‘Better to go to prison’: Israeli ultra-Orthodox rally against army service • FRANCE 24 English

It was dubbed the millionman march and in the end tens of thousands of ultra orthodox men flooded into the streets of Jerusalem with the familiar refrain. Every man needs to go to the army when he when he’s 18 years old but who used to learn was learning in the yeshiva learning Torah they let him to learn he shouldn’t have to go to the army. The protest was largely peaceful, but a 15-year-old boy died after falling accidentally from a construction site at the city’s entrance. After more than two years of war in Gaza, along with Israeli attacks in Iran, Yemen, and Lebanon, more than 900 Israeli soldiers have died, a burden not shared by the ultraorththodox, which make up 14% of the population. Military conscription is mandatory for most citizens in Israel, but historically not for the ultraorththodox. Last year, the country’s Supreme Court ordered an end to that exemption, and the military began issuing draft notices. About 80,000 went out, but only 3,000 ultraorththodox men complied. Right now, people who refuse to go to the army, they take them to military prison. It’s not so bad, but it’s it’s it’s no we’re a Jewish country. You can’t fight against Judaism in a Jewish country. It doesn’t work. But the vast majority of the Israeli public does not agree. And many reserveists have grown angry. An opinion poll taken last year showed more than threearters of Israelis were against exempting the ultraorththodox from serving in the military. Thursday’s protest came as Israeli lawmakers are expected to discuss a new draft bill on Monday. The contents of that bill have not been made public.

Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men rallied in Jerusalem on Thursday to protest against military conscription in their community, an issue that has caused a major strain in Israel’s right-wing ruling coalition. The vast crowd were demonstrating to demand a law guaranteeing their right to avoid Israel’s mandatory military service — long promised by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. FRANCE 24’s Monte Francis reports.
#Israel #Gaza #war

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11 comments

  5. Yes just study a book. Let everyone else do all the work. Most dysfunctional disgusting society I've ever witnessed.

  7. They are all traitors, ignorant of the fact that they would form a new holocaust at the hands of Islam! Wicked behaviour! Get together or die.,

  11. The crimes of the Zionist occupation against Palestinian children are sufficient grounds for expelling it from the planet, not just from Palestine.

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