Israeli army says van with ultra-Orthodox draft evaders attacked
An Israeli military van transporting arrested ultra-Orthodox Jewish draft evaders was attacked overnight by protesters from the community, the army says.
Thousands of draft notices have been sent in recent months to ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have traditionally been largely exempt from military service.
“Several draft evaders were arrested today, tried in disciplinary proceedings and sent to military detention,” the military said in a statement late on Wednesday. “While en route to the prison … several demonstrators threw stones and sprayed tear gas at the vehicle.”
Calls within Israel to end the exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews have intensified, with some reservists serving hundreds of days since the war began nearly two years ago.
Tensions rise as Israeli army confronts ultra-Orthodox men resisting draft
On Wednesday night, the Israeli army said two soldiers sustained minor injuries after they tried to transport members of the ultra-Orthodox community who have avoided conscription to a military prison.
Under longstanding arrangements, ultra-Orthodox men had been exempt from military service, but Israel’s Supreme Court last year ruled unanimously that the military must begin drafting them.
In a sign of growing social tensions around the issue, opposition politician Benny Gantz said in a social media post the attack against the soldiers was “serious and deserving of all condemnation”. The former Israeli war cabinet member also called out the “silence of coalition members and the Prime Minister in the face of this disgrace”.
Netanyahu presides over a fractious coalition of right and far-right parties, some of which represent ultra-Orthodox Jews, to maintain his thin majority in the Knesset.
Vladimir Beliak, a member of parliament with opposition leader Yair Lapid’s party, also said in a social media post that the “establishment of draft dodgers” is keeping Netanyahu’s “coalition alive even today”.
“They injured two [Israeli army] soldiers last night, but as far as Netanyahu and Likud are concerned, this is a reasonable price for maintaining power,” he added.
‘Toxic divisions ready to explode’ in Israel
Anger over ultra-Orthodox Israelis’ refusal to serve in the military, even as many in their community back the war, is creating greater rifts in Israel and could soon “explode”, Israeli affairs analyst Dan Perry says.
“The fact that 80,000 potential soldiers from this community are basically AWOL [absent without leave] and are completely uninvolved in the war effort is seen by the rest of society increasingly as brazen,” Perry told Al Jazeera.
He said that while the war is largely unpopular among the general public, the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, community almost unanimously supports the government that is directing it.
“So that means most of the people who still favour the war are refusing to fight in the war,” he said. “This irony – indeed this outrage – is not lost on Israeli society. And some serious toxic divisions are pretty much ready to explode.”
