Ultra-Orthodox Jews Protest Mandatory Military Service

Tel Aviv, MINA – Dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews have demonstrated near a recruitment office in central Israel against mandatory military service, Palestine Chronicle reported.

Video footage on X showed protesters blocking a road leading to the recruitment office in the Tel Hashomer neighborhood on Monday, carrying signs showing opposition to their conscription as police were present at the scene.

According to a report by the Israeli YNet news website, the protesters attempted to reach the recruitment office but were blocked by police.

The Israeli military redirected recruits to an alternative location, the report said, adding that among the recruits were “about 150 young ultra-Orthodox men” who had “completed a training course in preparation for enlistment through a project that recruits Haredim (ultra-orthodox Jews) for regular military service.”

For months, the army has faced a personnel shortage amid its ongoing genocidal attack on Gaza since last October, military raids in the West Bank, and cross-border clashes with the Lebanese movement Hezbollah.

In June, Israel’s Supreme Court mandated the drafting of ultra-Orthodox Jews, or Haredi, into the army and banned financial aid to religious institutions whose students refused military service. (T/RE1/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)