LIVE: Zambia votes in a 'pre-won' general election
LIVE: Zambia votes in a 'pre-won' general election
LIVE: Zambia votes in a 'pre-won' general election
LIVE: Zambia votes in a 'pre-won' general election
LIVE: Zambia votes in a 'pre-won' general election
LIVE: Zambia votes in a 'pre-won' general election
Ultra-Orthodox Jews rallied in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak over the arrest of a yeshiva student wanted for draft evasion, as tensions over Haredi military conscription continue.
Footage shows police clearing protesters from roads as demonstrators carried banners reading "We will die rather than enlist!" and "We will go to jail but not to the army."
Protester Buchner Azriel accused the state of seeking the "cultural annihilation" of the Haredi community by pushing its members into the military and workforce.
"The army has been defined as a melting pot, after all. For us, it is regarded as a church, and, as you know, it is better to die than to enter a church," Azriel said.
Another protester, Yehezkel Rotman, said the demonstration followed the detention of a yeshiva student who had been taken to military prison two days earlier.
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"As long as the state tries to conscript the Haredi community, does not leave them alone, and arrests them, the Haredi public will not enlist," Rotman said.
Israel's Supreme Court ruled in June 2024 that the state must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, finding there was no legal basis for their sweeping exemption from military service.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
