2013 Israeli protests

In 2013, several independent protests occurred in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. In May, the Tal Law ruling in 2012 led to protests by Haredi against conscription.[1] Again in November, Bedouins in the Negev called for a Day of Rage against their displacement.[2]

2013 Israeli protests
DateMay and November 2013
Location
Israel and the Palestinian Territories
GoalsAbolishment of Haredi conscription
Prevention of displacement of Bedouin
StatusOngoing
Number
Tens of thousands

Haredi protests

Following announcements that the new government plans to gradually incorporate the Haredi Jewish population of Israel into the country's armed forces, there were widespread protests against the government and the draft. Haredim are exempt from military service for religious reasons.[3] This exemption has been available to the ultra-Orthodox community since the establishment of the State of Israel and gives them the space to devote themselves fully to the study of the Torah. Many ultra-Orthodox men are not against the Israeli military and see themselves as patriots but want to contribute to the protection of the state by studying the scriptures in order to obtain the protection of God.[4]

The universal draft is an issue within Israeli society since the establishment of the state. In Februari 2012 the High Court of Justice ruled as unconstitutional a longstanding law granting sweeping exemptions to yeshiva students, which caused unrest under the Haredim communities in Israel. Several attempts have been made to formulate new laws to draft the ultra-Orthodox into the Israeli military but without much succes. Israeli political parties like Yesh Atid and Jewish Home made the issue of the draft of the Haredim community a key point in their political campaigns. In April 2013, a ministerial committee led by minister Yaakov Peri announced that a bill on national service for all citizens, including Haredim, would be presented to the Knesset within two months. Because of this renewed attention to the issue of the universal drafting, pamphlets were handed out in ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods in Jerusalem to motivate the ultra-Orthodox men to demonstrate against army drafting of yeshiva students.[5]

On 16 May 2013, between 15,000 and 30,000 Haredim demonstrated outside an IDF recruiting office in Jerusalem. Some allegedly threw stones and bottles at police and called them Nazis.[6][7][8] Rabbis warned the ultra-Orthodox community that army service would seriously harm and threaten their way of life. As Rabbi David Zycherman told the protesters crowd: "The government wants to uproot [our traditions] and secularise us, they call it a melting pot, but people cannot be melted. You cannot change our [way of life],”[9] Other protesters read out loud passages from the Torah to “annul the evil decree” of military service.[10]

Background

Tension between the ultra-Orthodox community and the state of Israel, which is established because of Zionist ideology, is something that exist for a long time. Before the Jewish State of Israel was proclaimed in 1948, Zionist and ultra-Orthodox already disagreed on what a Jewish state should look like and what the role of Judaism should be in that state. In the first place, the pre-state ultra-Orthodox community was against the establishment of the state of Israel, since they believe this should be done by the Messiah who, according to most religious Jews, is still yet to come.[11][12] Zionism has no legitimacy without Judaism since it is based on the ancient covenant of the Jewish people with the Bible, besides that the Zionist needed worldwide Jewish support for their cause and therefore also had to please the ultra-Orthodox community, this was done by compromising on religious issues.[13] Even though the ultra-Orthodox people did not support the man-made Jewish state, after the Holocaust almost all orthodox centers in Europe were destroyed and the establishment of the new state of Israel gave them the opportunity to rebuild their communities.[14]

This resulted in a status quo agreement initiated by David Ben-Gurion and ultra-Orthodox party Agudat Israel. It assured that the establishment of the state would protect ultra-Orthodox lifestyle. Including exclusion from military service of 800 yeshiva students. When Menachem Begin became president in 1977, all ultra-Orthodox got exemption from military service, which resulted in an increase in yeshiva students. In the ultra-Orthodox community it is normal to have an average of 7 children per family, so the number of those exempt from military service is growing rapidly.[15] In addition to being exempt from military service, the ultra-Orthodox community also has a low labor participation rate and often live on benefits. These are paid from the taxes of working people in society who are mostly not ultra-Orthodox and also do military service. This is why the discussion of military drafting often reappears in Israeli politics, it is part of a greater discussion of equality in society and a cause of polarisation between the secular and ultra-Orthodox people in Israel.[16][17]

Bedouin protests

The Prawer-Begin plan to remove the tents of between 40.000 and 70.000 Bedouins from 35 villages out of their ancestral villages, which the government has classified as "illegal" and a "land grab,". Half of the Bedouin community in Israel, which makes up about 28% of the total population, lives in informal villages.[18] It is intended to move them to specially designed state-planned towns.[19] However the Bedouin communities do not want this. Former General Doron Almog, who is tasked with implementing the plan, said: "The idea is to ... better integrate Jews and Bedouins; to bring many more Bedouins to our work force; to employ and educate many more women for employment; and to build new communities; and to expand some of the current communities and make them modern." Its stated aim is also to "modernise" the Bedouin and improve their quality of life. US$340m has been allocated over five years for the project. According to the Bedouin community, it is the state of Israel that is denying them access to infrastructure, water and electricity because the state does not recognize their villages.[20] The United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay commented, "As citizens of Israel, the Arab Bedouins are entitled to the same rights to property, housing, and public services as any other group in Israel. The government must recognize and respect the specific rights of its Bedouin communities, including recognition of Bedouin land ownership claims."[21]

A day of protest was called against the plan that organisers said would evict 40,000 Bedouin citizens from their homes and into impoverished townships. The main protest was scheduled to be held near the Bedouin township of Hura on November 30, with other protests planned in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and in several other cities across Europe, North America and the Middle East. Bedouin activist Huda Abu-Obeid said: "The government is trying to present the plan as 'in the best interest of the Bedouin', while with one hand it is acting to destroy Bedouin villages… and with the other it is building new Jewish localities in the Negev, some of these in the very same places where the [Bedouin] villages stand today."[22]

Following expectation the plan would fail a Knesset vote it was canceled. Benny Begin, who jointly formulated the plan, said: "Right and left, Arabs and Jews joined forces - while exploiting the plight of many Bedouin - to heat things up for political gain. There is no majority in the coalition for the bill. [But Netanyahu agreed to] carry out the development plan for Bedouin settlements in the coming years."[23]

See also

References
  1. "Ultra-Orthodox Jews protest Israel army draft". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2022-05-01.
  2. "Israel scraps plan to uproot Bedouin". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2022-05-01.
  3. "Het Parool - Vrij, Onverveerd". Het Parool (in Dutch). Retrieved 2022-04-28.
  4. https://www.parool.nl/nieuws/dienstplicht-om-ultraorthodoxe-joden-meer-te-betrekken-bij-de-samenleving~bed3650e/
  5. https://www.timesofisrael.com/ultra-orthodox-turn-out-en-masse-to-protest-draft/
  6. Sanders, Edmund (16 May 2013). "Ultra-Orthodox protest military draft in Israel". Los Angeles Times.
  7. "Ultra-Orthodox Jews in mass protest against Israel army draft". BBC News. 17 May 2013.
  8. "A day after violent protest, Haredi coverage ranges from delicate criticism to complete disregard".
  9. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2013/5/17/ultra-orthodox-jews-protest-israel-army-draft
  10. https://www.timesofisrael.com/ultra-orthodox-turn-out-en-masse-to-protest-draft/
  11. Auerbach, Jerold S. (2001). Are we one? : Jewish identity in the United States and Israel. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-3253-1. OCLC 52870631.
  12. Orr, Akiva (1983). The unJewish State the politics of Jewish identity in Israel (in Eng). London: (Ithaca Press London. pp. 4–5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  13. Ben-Porat, Guy (2012). Between State and Synagogue : the Secularization of Contemporary Israel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-61557-0. OCLC 823724546.
  14. Efron, Noah J. (2003). Real Jews : secular versus ultra-orthodox and the struggle for Jewish identity in Israel. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-01854-8. OCLC 51965679.
  15. Efron, Noah J. (2003). Real Jews : secular versus ultra-orthodox and the struggle for Jewish identity in Israel. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-01854-8. OCLC 51965679.
  16. Efron, Noah J. (2003). Real Jews : secular versus ultra-orthodox and the struggle for Jewish identity in Israel. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-01854-8. OCLC 51965679.
  17. Gross, Judah Ari. "IDF exemption for Haredim expires — but nothing's likely to change, for now". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2022-05-01.
  18. Koensler, Alexander (January 2013). "Insurgent Building: Emerging Spatial Politics in the Bedouin-State Conflict in Israel: Insurgent building in the Negev, Israel". International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 37 (1): 46–60. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2427.2012.01173.x.
  19. "Volume Information". Journal of Palestine Studies. 12 (4). 1983. doi:10.2307/2536240. ISSN 0377-919X. JSTOR 2536240.
  20. "Volume Information". Journal of Palestine Studies. 12 (4). 1983. doi:10.2307/2536240. ISSN 0377-919X. JSTOR 2536240.
  21. "Volume Information". Journal of Palestine Studies. 12 (4). 1983. doi:10.2307/2536240. ISSN 0377-919X. JSTOR 2536240.
  22. "'Day of Rage' against Israel Bedouin eviction".
  23. "Israel scraps plan to uproot Bedouin".
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