{"id":300801,"date":"2026-02-20T09:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/300801\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T09:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:44:08","slug":"its-a-disgrace-israelis-have-had-enough-amid-ultra-orthodox-riots-fury-over-idf-draft-dodging-peaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/300801\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;It&#8217;s a Disgrace. Israelis Have Had Enough&#8217;: Amid ultra-Orthodox Riots, Fury Over IDF Draft-dodging Peaks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-testid=\"rich-text\" class=\"x13faqbe x12ds5z6 x1rrzvkg x1txrjqu x115k1yo x126s5kd x1az39ph x1qxhirb xhhm3bp xjplvm8 x1ur7pbh\">When an ultra-Orthodox mob attacked two women soldiers in the city of Bnei Brak earlier this week, Israelis were shocked and horrified. <\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"rich-text\" class=\"x13faqbe x12ds5z6 x1rrzvkg x1txrjqu x115k1yo x126s5kd x1az39ph x1qxhirb xhhm3bp xjplvm8 x1ur7pbh\">But for Uri Keidar, CEO of Free Israel, this violent expression of ultra-Orthodox opposition to being drafted into the military did not come as a surprise.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"rich-text\" class=\"x13faqbe x12ds5z6 x1rrzvkg x1txrjqu x115k1yo x126s5kd x1az39ph x1qxhirb xhhm3bp xjplvm8 x1ur7pbh\">&#8220;It&#8217;s not the first violent occurrence we have seen, and unfortunately, it probably also won&#8217;t be the last incident. But it&#8217;s definitely a sad moment for us as a country,&#8221; Keidar said, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"rich-text\" class=\"x13faqbe x12ds5z6 x1rrzvkg x1txrjqu x115k1yo x126s5kd x1az39ph x1qxhirb xhhm3bp xjplvm8 x1ur7pbh\">As the Netanyahu government continues to seek a way to pass legislation exempting tens of thousands of able-bodied<a class=\"x1bvjpef x41m6fz xly1mqq x1k57tk5 x1i43xu1 xx6stda x15spe28 x1wntsoc xj69yco xfw692k xg830sg x13dflua xfagghw xz4gly6\" target=\"_router\" href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/israel-news\/israel-politics\/2026-02-19\/ty-article-magazine\/.premium\/explained-deserters-and-dodgers-what-led-to-a-violent-haredi-riot-this-week-in-israel\/0000019c-6dd8-d759-a7bf-ffdaca610000\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> ultra-Orthodox men from mandatory military service<\/a> in order to preserve their political coalition, Keidar sees the country at a &#8220;historic&#8221; crossroads in which Israelis will stand up and refuse to let it happen.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"rich-text\" class=\"x13faqbe x12ds5z6 x1rrzvkg x1txrjqu x115k1yo x126s5kd x1az39ph x1qxhirb xhhm3bp xjplvm8 x1ur7pbh\">&#8220;It&#8217;s a very basic idea, I think, that the law applies to everyone,&#8221; he said on the podcast. In a post-October 7 reality alongside the IDF in a manpower crisis, he said, &#8220;the Israeli public just will not accept the fact&#8221; that &#8220;there are tens of thousands of young haredi men who are totally healthy, who can join the IDF at any given moment, and are refusing to do so.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"rich-text\" class=\"x13faqbe x12ds5z6 x1rrzvkg x1txrjqu x115k1yo x126s5kd x1az39ph x1qxhirb xhhm3bp xjplvm8 x1ur7pbh\"><a class=\"x1bvjpef x41m6fz xly1mqq x1k57tk5 x1i43xu1 xx6stda x15spe28 x1wntsoc xj69yco xfw692k xg830sg x13dflua xfagghw xz4gly6\" target=\"_router\" href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/israel-news\/2026-02-16\/ty-article-magazine\/.premium\/bnei-brak-riots-break-from-ideology-and-become-an-outlet-for-aimless-rage\/0000019c-6703-de36-a19f-ef8f468f0000\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">That refusal<\/a>, he said, represents the country&#8217;s &#8220;biggest civil disobedience movement since its history&#8221; and Israelis &#8220;from the right, left and center&#8221; are uniting to oppose it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When an ultra-Orthodox mob attacked two women soldiers in the city of Bnei Brak earlier this week, Israelis&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1031,85,46,94,954,43,12185],"class_list":{"0":"post-300801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-idf","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-israel-protest","12":"tag-israeli-politics","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-ultra-orthodox"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}