Haredi Settlers Protest against Enlisting in Israeli Army: “We Would Rather Die”

Israel  (Palestine Foundation Information Center) Declaring that they would rather die than enlist in the Israeli military, dozens of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators protest at a military induction center in an attempt to disrupt the drafting of a number of yeshiva students to the occupation army.

Israeli occupation security forces work to remove members of the extremist Jerusalem Faction, some of whom tried to lie down in front of buses at the Tel Hashomer base, the Ynet news site reports.

‍☠⚔‍☠ Haredi settlers demonstrate in front of the recruitment headquarters in Tel Hashomer, rejecting their compulsory recruitment and saying: We will die rather than enlist pic.twitter.com/E3x1rUQ4BX

— Military Observer (@MilitaryObs2222) October 31, 2024

The protest comes against the backdrop of bitter disagreements in the Knesset over the issue of Haredi enlistment to the Israeli army, after the High Court of Justice ruled in June that there was no longer any legal framework allowing the state to refrain from drafting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students into compulsory service.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly reassured his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners that his government will advance a bill facilitating sweeping exemptions for Haredi men from mandatory military service.

The dispute over the ultra-Orthodox community serving in the military is one of the most contentious in the Zionist entity, with decades of governmental and judicial attempts to settle the issue never achieving a stable resolution. The issue has grown in urgency as the occupation military suffers from a lack of troops and pressure on reservists increases over the past year of war.

A group of Israeli army reservists recently sent on Wednesday a letter to Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi criticizing the continued failure to draft members of the ultra-Orthodox community, a move that they said would have helped reduce the large number of days they have been required to serve since the start of the war in Gaza over a year ago.

The letter accused the Israeli military of having “failed” its reserve soldiers who are frustrated and burnt-out after multiple stints in Gaza, on the northern border, and now in southern Lebanon amid the ongoing ground offensive there.

Earlier on Saturday (October 28), Israeli army radio reported that less than four percent of the 3,000 Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Israelis who received recruitment orders since July to join the military have done so.