High-ranking reserve officers in the Israel Defense Force and disabled war veterans addressed a mass rally here Tuesday night protesting the exemption of yeshiva students from compulsory military service.
The theme of their speeches was that anyone claiming benefits from a democratic society must fulfill its obligations.
The rally drew between 25,000 and 30,000 Israelis, according to Mayor Shlomo Lehat of Tel Aviv, an IDF reserve general who was one of the organizers. Others estimated the crowd at 19,000 to 20,000, approximately the number of yeshiva students currently exempted from the draft.
Speakers at the rally warned that rabbis who avoided military service because of their yeshiva studies should not be made ministers in a government that might be required to decide questions of war and peace.
An IDF veteran who lost an arm in combat told the crowd that he volunteered for reserve duty despite his disability. “If I can do my duty and serve with one arm, yeshiva students can certainly serve,” he said.
The yeshiva students got a chance Tuesday to explain their point of view.
Four of them, interviewed on Israel Radio, maintained that “over 18 hours a day studying the Talmud, Gemara and other religious tracts is more important to the defense and security of the Jewish state than any army or arms-bearing soldier.”
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