Violent protests & Nazi-comparisons surround latest round of Haredi enlistment into IDF & Knesset discussions over draft law

Violent clashes and controversial statements marked the latest round of enlistment by ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) men into the Israeli military on Sunday, which saw some 210 combat soldiers and 140 combat support personnel join the ranks of the IDF.

Hundreds of Haredis took to the streets to protest against the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox recruits, clashing with police outside the recruitment office in Jerusalem while blocking the approach to the Tel Hashomer military base in Kiryat Ono.

Illustrating the state of mind of some protesters, a Haredi man told Kan News outside Tel Hashomer that “recruitment offices are like extermination ovens to us.” 

The offices are places “where hundreds and thousands entered wearing a kippah, tzitzit, and keeping Shabbat and mitzvot, and tens of percent left without them [...] we will continue to fight until the rule of evil is overturned,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset continued discussions over the latest IDF draft bill presented by chairman Boaz Bismuth, which still hasn’t received the full backing of the Haredi leadership while being strongly criticized by the opposition, and some coalition members.

At the end of the recruitment day, the head of the IDF’s personnel planning branch, Brig.-Gen. Shai Tayeb updated the committee saying that Sunday saw an increase in the number of ultra-Orthodox recruits. “As of noon, there were over 210 combat soldiers and more than 140 combat support personnel, and it appears that within about 10 days this will conclude with the largest enlistment in recent years,” he said.

The committee discussion was marred by United Torah Judaism (UTJ) chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf, who compared proposed sanctions against draft dodgers to the yellow star that Nazis placed on Jews during the Holocaust.

“Sanctions is an ugly word. From the very beginning we asked the prime minister and the cabinet secretary: give us Torah scholars who are free of obligations. The Talmud says that anyone who accepts upon himself the yoke of Torah has the yoke of government and worldly concerns removed from him.” 

Addressing the committee, he added, “I beg you – if there are people who study Torah, exempt them from everything. They should not be tied to quotas or targets. In what country in the world do they take a rabbi and punish him? Here in Israel, we’ll decide to punish them? A yellow badge – how can we do this?”

He added that “We greatly appreciate those who enlist; there’s no need to put us on one side and the public on the other,” while his party colleague, MK Meir Porush, added that “secular Israelis should receive a much harsher sanction, because much more money has been invested in them. If a secular person evades service, he should pay more for all the ‘candies’ he received throughout his life. The poor ultra-Orthodox person received nothing.”

These comments predictably drew harsh condemnations from across the political spectrum.

Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth said sharply, “Members of the committee know the great respect I have for Torah scholars and for the ultra-Orthodox world in general, but the yellow badge has no place here. There must be a line.”

Opposition leader Yair Lapid later responded, “How dare you? My father wore a yellow badge in the Budapest ghetto simply because there was no Jewish army to protect his life. My grandfather wore a yellow badge when he was murdered in a concentration camp.” 

“What you said today in the committee is every antisemite’s dream – both a desecration of the memory of Holocaust victims and contempt for the IDF and its soldiers,” Lapid added.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich blasted the “disconnected” Goldknopf, noting that he (Goldknopf) “fortunately” had left the coalition over the draft issue.

“There is no place in our coalition for disconnected and insensitive people who repeatedly harm the people of Israel, IDF fighters, and Torah scholars.”

“Our heroic fighters are the ones battling the Nazis in every generation and preventing them from carrying out the final solution conceived by the one who devised the yellow badge. Religious Zionism proves that it is possible to combine Torah and action, and we are determined to prove that the ultra-Orthodox public is also capable of this,” Smotrich added.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Noam Tibon, who recently joined Lapid’s Yesh Atid, said “we’ve had enough of the whining by ultra-Orthodox members of Knesset over the draft evasion law. Even more infuriating is the cynical and disgraceful use of Holocaust memory. At demonstrations they call police officers Nazis, and for draft evaders they suggest wearing a yellow badge. It won’t help you – the draft evasion law will not pass. In the government of repair, we will enlist all the ultra-Orthodox, and they will be excellent soldiers.”

Meanwhile, the draft law controversy continues to cripple the coalition, as the Haredi parties issued a new ultimatum on Sunday declaring that they wouldn’t approve the next state budget without a new draft law.