Military Police Arrest 3 Yeshiva Students In Their Homes, Jerusalem Faction Preparing Protests

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Military Police officers arrived at the home of a student from the “Itri” yeshiva late on Tuesday night. They managed to locate and arrest him, and within minutes, he was removed from his home and transferred to a military prison.

Later that night, another unit of the Military Police arrived at the home of a student from the “Ateret Shlomo” yeshiva. They also managed to locate, arrest, and transfer him to a military prison.

In an outrageous and insensitive additional incident, a third student, from the Neve Eretz yeshiva was also arrested while he was sitting shiva for his father.

This policy represents an escalation in the IDF’s attempts to forcibly conscript yeshiva students, who are currently deemed in ‘illegal’ status due to the lack of a draft deferment law. Moreover the arrests occurred during the Bein Ha’Zmanim period when students are home and not at a time when they should be in the yeshiva and were absent.

The Jerusalem Faction is preparing to launch intense protests, as this is the first time for a long period that such arrests occurred at private homes and not at Ben-Gurion Airport or during clashes with police forces.

It should be noted that once again, the yeshiva students arrested are from  Sephardic backgrounds, which appears to suggest that the IDF continues to enforce draft laws more heavily against Sephardic yeshiva students.

As previously reported earlier this week by Kikar HaShabbat, after a long period during which the Military Police refrained from arresting yeshiva students from their homes, the IDF has decided to renew these arrests.

Already on Monday, there was a dramatic attempted arrest in the heart of the Haredi neighborhood of Neve Yaakov in northern Jerusalem.Hundreds of protesters were summoned to Edmund Peleg Street, where the young man resides, and a major commotion broke out, ultimately leading the Military Police officers to leave the neighborhood after the arrest attempt failed.

The Jerusalem Faction said in a statement they published:
“The crowds who arrived at the scene prevented the arrest, and the police retreated. Eyewitnesses said that the Military Police used force in an attempt to break down the door.”