Jerusalem rocked by huge ultra-Orthodox demonstration against army conscription

Hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox men filled Jerusalem on Thursday in a demonstration against the Israeli state's demand to enlist them into the army and the arrest of draft dodgers.

The protest, described earlier this week as the “demonstration of the million”, was a rare show of unity from all of Israel's ultra-Orthodox factions but was marred by the death of a 15-year-old, who fell from a construction site.

Yesterday, rabbis of Chabad, an ultra-Orthodox faction with no clear political identification, issued a “call to participate in the prayer and cry rally in Jerusalem”.

“Today, all the ultra-Orthodox factions have come together,” Yehuda Hirsch, 20, told Middle East Eye at the demonstration. “We will not enlist in the army under any circumstances.”

“We are two opposites,” said Hirsch, a member of the ultra-Orthodox, anti-Zionist faction Neturei Karta, referring to the ultra-Orthodox on one side and the army and state on the other.

“For the first time after 10 years of the last struggle, everyone came together to say, just like we don't enlist to Hamas, we don't enlist to the IDF (Israeli army).”

Israeli media reported overcrowding at train stations, which were filled with ultra-Orthodox men making their way to the demonstration.

Police blocked Highway 1, the main road leading to Jerusalem, and other streets in the city to deal with the large number of people demonstrating. Many made their way to the city on foot.

A 25-year-old ultra-Orthodox man, who did not want his name to be published, told MEE he was “demonstrating because of the draft. I'm not enlisting. I'm with an arrest warrant. I'm not scared... I sat in detention for the demonstrations, and I'll sit for a year. I'm not afraid.”

“It's not about the war,” the young man said, referring to the genocide in Gaza. “I have friends who were killed, and I cry for every soldier, but the issue is that the state wants us to be secular.”

Michael, a 19-year-old from Jerusalem who studies at a yeshiva in Bnei Brak, told MEE: “I have a draft order. As long as the rabbis don't tell me to go, I won't show up.”

A longstanding question

Ultra-Orthodox enlistment in the Israeli army has been a complex issue in Jewish society for many years.

With the establishment of the state in 1948, Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, granted an exemption from military service to the ultra-Orthodox, but this was not enshrined in law.

Beginning in the 1970s, a public debate emerged regarding the enlistment of the ultra-Orthodox into the army. As a result, over the years, several unsuccessful attempts have been made to enshrine the issue into law. 

The beginning of the genocide in Gaza and the enlistment of hundreds of thousands of Israelis to participate in it led to a fiery debate on the issue of ultra-Orthodox conscription.

The extreme right-wing Israeli government, which includes the ultra-Orthodox parties, failed to enshrine the exemption from conscription due to widespread public opposition, which also came from within the coalition itself. 

Thursday's protest came after last week's arrest by the military police of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who refused to enlist.

After the arrest, MK Meir Porush of United Torah Judaism said, “The continued arrests of Torah students as part of the campaign of persecution of religion declared by the attorney general is a disgrace that indicates heartlessness.”

Michael told MEE that he is “not afraid of the state, we are in the hands of the maker of the world. The state wants us to be secular.” 

“It's the first time we're going out and hopefully it's the last time,” Michael said. "Twelve years ago, we demonstrated and it helped, back then they postponed the draft.”

'Unprecedented demonstration'

Moshe Gafni, a member of the Knesset and leader of the Ashkenazi Haredi party United Torah Judaism, said in an interview with ultra-Orthodox radio during the demonstration that “this reality is beyond all imagination”.

“People from all over the country come to this big rally, which is almost unprecedented,” Gafni said.

“The cry from here will be heard all over the world, and I hope that with God's help, it will affect all those who want to harm the world of Torah.”

Gafni added that the arrest of ultra-Orthodox youths “is something reminiscent of the Romans, the dark days of the Jewish people. It's a decree from heaven that you can't live with”.

'We are Jews as Jews. We have no connection to the State of Israel'

- Yehuda Hirsch, ultra-Orthodoz demonstrator 

Yesterday, Israel's Channel 12 News revealed that a new draft law was written by Boaz Bismuth, chairman of the new foreign affairs and defence committee, of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.

The new plan was criticised because it was seen as an attempt to appease the ultra-Orthodox parties, which resigned from the government earlier this year.

Bismuth was appointed head of the committee after difficulties posed by the previous chairman, Yuli Edelstein, another Likud politician, over the issue of ultra-Orthodox enlistment.

Death of a teenager

The demonstration turned deadly after a 15-year-old boy fell from a height of about 100 metres from a construction site.

Israeli media also reported clashes and riots that took place across Jerusalem. A Channel 12 News reporter was attacked by demonstrators who threw water bottles at her.

Another staff member of the channel was attacked at another location, the Israeli channel reported.

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Thousands of ultra-Orthodox climbed roofs, bridges and construction sites during the demonstration, without police supervision, as in other demonstrations in Israel.

The demonstration was strongly criticised by members of the opposition, who called for the ultra-Orthodox to be drafted into the army.

Yair Golan, leader of the centre-left Democrats party, wrote on his X account that the demonstration was “a good opportunity to bring… military police forces there and let them choose: to be part of the people of Israel or to pay the price”.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid of the centrist Yesh Atid party said, “If you are able to march in the streets, you can march in basic training and defend the State of Israel.” 

Yehuda Hirsch told MEE that the Israeli state “thinks we have become Israelis, that we have already undergone Israelisation, that we are part of their sympathy, of the war and of their values.” But, Hirsch said, "we are not".

“We are Jews as Jews. We have no connection to the State of Israel, and we don't want to enlist in any way, just as an Arab doesn't enlist, a Jew doesn't enlist. Anyone who enlists is a Zionist."