December 26, 2015
...MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS...:
Draft law renews debate on IDF service for ultra-Orthodox : Amendment to Equal Service bill eliminates criminal sanctions against draft dodgers, overturning legislation passed in 2014 (MIKE SMITH, December 26, 2015, AFP)
When a rabbi showed up at a synagogue in Israeli military uniform, David Croise and others there were not impressed. The rabbi denies they assaulted him, but admits they shouted him down.The incident last year led to the arrest of 19-year-old Croise, followed by his detention for around a week for having failed to enlist in the army."I explained to them that we are Jewish people. We don't believe in the state," Croise said before lighting a Hanukkah festival of light candle in front of his home among the narrow streets and stone buildings of Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood."We don't go to the army," he added, wearing the wide-brimmed hat and black coat common to the ultra-Orthodox.A decades-old debate over whether ultra-Orthodox young men studying at seminaries should perform mandatory military service like the rest of Israel's Jewish population has flared again.In November, lawmakers passed legislation extending their exemption from duty, reversing a law passed in 2014 that would have seen it expire.
Posted by Orrin Judd at December 26, 2015 8:33 AM