Jews protest in New York against recruitment into Israeli army

Some 150,000 ultra-orthodox Jews from New York have protested in support of their community against enlistment in the occupying Israeli army, the Arab Media Network reported.

According to the news outlet, the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported today that protests against recruitment into the Israeli army were staged in New York by thousands of members of the anti-Zionist Hasidic sect. Protesters came out against the arrest of some religious school students who had refused to enlist.

In an incident in Brooklyn, the paper says groups demanding that religious Jews enlist in the Israeli army in support of the new Zionist policy clashed with and attacked dozens of rabbis who oppose the law, the newspaper said.

Read: Ultra-Orthodox Jews burn IDF effigy in Jerusalem

For several years, there has been a fierce conflict in Israel between secular and religious people who refuse to enlist and prefer to stay in religious schools to learn the Jewish holy book, the Torah.  The demonstration in the United States follows ongoing protests within Israel by Hasidic Jews who make up around ten per cent of the Israeli population and have been, until now, exempt from doing military service or going to work. Members of the group were arrested in clashes with the police in February and March this year.

In November 2015, the Knesset approved an amendment to the Equal Service Law which removed the right of ultra-orthodox Jews to avoid military service and imposed sanctions on communities if enlistment quotas were not met.

#Conscription

Recent changes to the law means that full conscriptions and community financial penalties for non-compliance will not come into effect until 2020 and in some cases 2023.