Wearing yellow stars and chanting 'the army is worse than death': Haredi protest blocks major highway

Haredi protesters, opposing the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) draft, blocked a major highway near Bnei Brak during the afternoon rush hour on Wednesday. They sat on the road, some wearing yellow patches that symbolized the Jewish star forced upon Jews during the Holocaust, and chanted slogans such as "We will die and not enlist," "To prison and not to the army," and "The army is worse than death."

The protesters also targeted a female motorcyclist with insults, including "shiksa," a term used to derogatorily refer to non-Jewish women.

One protester, Leib Cohen, explained that the yellow patches represented their commitment to Jewish faith and values, stating that the IDF's goal of building a secular nation conflicted with their belief system. He emphasized that life was less important than faith, and that the struggle against the IDF was about preserving their beliefs. Another protester, Azriel Buchner, added that for a Jew, certain values were more important than life itself, and that becoming secular in the army was worse than death.

The protest, announced earlier, was in response to the arrest of a Haredi draft dodger, who was summoned to give testimony in a fraud case. However, the protest turned violent, with police declaring it illegal and using force to disperse the crowd. The arrested man was a yeshiva student, and police sources claimed he was a suspect in another case and was transferred to the Military Police after his testimony.

Despite a law protecting draft dodgers from arrest until the election, the Supreme Court blocked it, yet the lack of military tools for enforcement often led to clashes between protesters and police, resulting in few Haredi draft dodgers being arrested in Israel.