Hanged effigy of Haredi soldier in Jerusalem
Photo: Reuters
Contest at Haredi girls' school: Design a banner for draft-dodgers
The Education Ministry has received complaints about the Tiberias school's contest; the principal is the niece of a prominent anti-draft rabbi.
The Education Ministry has received complaints about a competition at an all-girls' ultra-Orthodox school in Tiberias to design a banner encouraging draft-dodging yeshiva students.
Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, who heads Jerusalem's Lithuanian community, has ordered his followers to boycott the IDF over an amendment to the bill meant to incorporate more ultra-Orthodox men into the army.
He told his followers to ignore IDF summons and fail to show up at the IDF induction center, even for the purpose of obtaining an exemption from service.
Haredi youth protesting arrest of draft-dodging peer (Photo: Barak Pachter)
Consequently, some of his followers were arrested by the IDF, leading to violent protests mostly in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh.
A sign hung at the school read "Dear Student, come and do your part in the protest by making a banner. You can make a protest banner (against the draft) or a support banner for the God-fearing yeshiva students who refuse to be drafted. Among the banners a few would be chosen, awarding their makers with a prize. Hurry and participate in the protest!"
The school's principal, Ruhama Fisher, is the niece of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach.
Following this, MK Oded Forer (Yisrael Beiteinu) demanded that Education Minister Naftali Bennett take immediate action against the institution, which he claimed to also pray for the arrested Haredi defectors and gathered monetary donations from the student to help the cause.
"The severity of these acts and going so far as holding a competition to promote defection is another step in a slippery slope that could damage the state, its law and its symbols," said Forer, adding that "the fact that these actions were taken by the most senior official of the institution, which enjoys government funding gathered from Israeli taxpayers, is even more outrageous. The school is funded by the Ministry of Education, so this defiant activity cannot be allowed to continue."
The Ministry of Education has yet to respond.
