Dozens of haredi protestors demonstrate arrest of yeshiva student

Despite ongoing incitement against haredi men who enlist to the army, haredi enlistment to the IDF appears to be meeting government set targets.

By JEREMY SHARON
Haredi protest in Jerusalem against draft (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Haredi protest in Jerusalem against draft
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
More than 100 haredi protestors, mostly from the radical Neturei Karta sect, demonstrated outside the Jerusalem IDF enlistment offices on Sunday following the arrest of a yeshiva student for refusing to enlist to the army.
Two demonstrators were arrested for attacking policemen while a minor was also arrested for damaging a police patrol car.
According to haredi sources, the man arrested is a Sephardi yeshiva student who was seeking to obtain an exemption from IDF service on the grounds of being mentally unfit for service but was denied an exemption on these grounds and was subsequently arrested.
On Friday, much larger riots took place after another yeshiva student from the Belz hassidic community who had failed to report for enlistment was arrested by the military police.
Several hundred radical haredi men took to the streets in Jerusalem in protest where they blocked roads, burnt tyres and rubbish bins and and threw stones at police forces in, while similar disturbances occurred in Beit Shemesh.
In total nine demonstrators were arrested and one policeman lightly hurt.
Despite ongoing incitement against haredi men who enlist to the army, haredi enlistment to the IDF appears to be meeting government set targets.
The target for enlistment in the enlistment year for 2014 was for 2,300 haredi men to enlist to the IDF, with final number falling just short at 2,280.
Final figures for the 2015 enlistment year, which ran from July 2015 to June 2016, are not yet available, although the figure for the first six months of the year was almost exactly half of the 2,700 target for the entire year, suggesting the full annual target would be met.