Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unable to calm the latest front with the country’s ultra-Orthodox community, which has opened up in parallel to the war in Gaza. His latest demonstration was the black tide of hats and coats of tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews of all ages that took over the Mea Sharim neighborhood of Jerusalem on Sunday afternoon. The Haredi (religious) community reinforced with this protest the standoff it maintains with the authorities after the end of the privilege that kept them from the obligation to serve in the army, ordered on June 25 by the Supreme Court. A large banner hanging along three floors of a facade in this neighborhood makes its position clear: “We will not enlist in the enemy army.”
Sholomi Shisha, 19, makes a fist while saying that “the Israeli army and government are like Hamas.” It is the best way he has to express that they consider the military and the rulers of their country as impure and sinners. What if they force you to be a soldier? “If I have to go to jail, I will pay the price,” he responds.
A group of curious young people, all wearing the same black suit except for the white shirt, surround the reporter. Some are American Jews, who also show off their long ringlets, and demonstrate in support of their Israeli co-religionists, since they are not affected by the imposition of the Supreme Court. Nor to Haredi women. One of them, Cheskel Weiser, 20 years old and who arrived in Jerusalem seven months ago to study the Torah, is clear that “the army is against the Jewish religion.”
Moshe (he does not give his last name), 40 years old, is accompanied by his one-year-old daughter Raquel, in his arms. “We pray and that is our service to the army,” she justifies. In fact, when there were barely a few hundred inhabitants, the authorities authorized the ultra-Orthodox in the mid-20th century to be exempt from wearing the military uniform. But today they represent more than 13% of the 10 million Israelis. Many dedicate themselves solely to praying and studying the sacred scriptures while being subsidized by the Government.
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But the war with Hamas in Gaza, which will be nine months old next Sunday, and the threat of an escalation in the north with the Lebanese guerrilla Hezbollah has led the authorities to demand not only more reservists of the more than 300,000 who have have already been called, but that the haredis join in the defense of the country. With sarcasm and a smile, Moshe expresses his “condolences, as does the Prime Minister” (Benjamin Netanyahu) for the more than 300 soldiers who have lost their lives in the current war, a figure one hundred times lower than the almost 38,000 Dead Palestinians. The heterogeneous coalition that keeps Netanyahu in power depends not only on ultranationalists, but also on ultra-Orthodox formations that the Supreme Court’s decision could lead to dropping the Executive.
“They do their job and we do ours. They are secular; we are religious. They don’t want us as we are, with our coats, our hats,” he summarizes, openly referring to a “clash” between both positions in Israeli society that can end in “civil war.”
Without police
The crowd filled several streets of Mea Sharim at Sunday’s demonstration without the presence of police officers, while prayers that those present accompanied were playing over the loudspeaker. Some carried the Torah in their hands. Others, posters that they raised with the help of wooden sticks with different slogans, but that always revolved around the same argument: “Israel is not a Jewish State, it is a Zionist State. “Jews are not Zionists.” “Rather die as Jews than live as Zionists.” “We refuse to serve in an army at the service of the Zionist gods.” “Anti-religious imposition. Our life is becoming impossible here.” “The law is not for us to become soldiers, but for us to become Zionists.” “The authorities persecute Torah students.”
Following the protest, five people were arrested after stones were thrown at the vehicles of a minister and a former minister, according to local media, and several dozen protesters were subdued with water cannons by the police after nightfall in the vicinity of the Supreme Court.
Throughout the afternoon, on the sides of the sidewalks, balconies and windows, and without participating directly, the ultra-Orthodox women witnessed the passing of the demonstration. Among the journalists covering the protest march were several women who were spat on, insulted, pushed and attacked by throwing objects by the religious to make them leave the area. Even some ultra-Orthodox women urged them to do so. It doesn’t matter that the journalists entered the streets of the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood dressed modestly and respectful of the customs of religious people. At times, an uncontrolled mob ended up surrounding some of them while they threw water in glasses or bottles at them shouting “Whore!”
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