BS"D
Jailed For Acting Jewishly*
(*an update of a recent post)
Alarming Instances of Anti-Jewish Religious-Discrimination Against Orthodox Women and Girls, by Draft Officials -- and Staff at Military Prison Number Four
Teves 16, 5780 °° Jan. 13, '20
By Binyomin Feinberg
FeinbergBinyomin@gmail.com
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Update:
1) This breaking news just in this afternoon: Another Israeli girl refusing to be drafted into the Army was recently arrested, Maital C. We hope to provide details as they become available.
2) As reported previously, another Israeli girl, Tal-Yah Bas Rus, was recently arrested and has been incarcerated in Military Prison Four, similarly due to her refusal to enlist in the Israeli Army. She too should be commended and vigorously assisted, in light of her willingness to endure imprisonment rather than enlist in the military. We hope to provide updated information as it becomes available.
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To check for updates, on first view of this article, as well as throughout the week, please visit Updates for month of Teves '80:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LDLjvECWQExYoGjqIrbZtWALp6MpkHq22ihNz2BLuYM/edit?usp=sharing
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###### BREAKING NEWS: ######
A significant scandal has been brought to light, just as we approach an important hearing tommorow - Tues. - for Orpaz Orah G. (bas Aliza). Orah is a 27 y/o religious sefardic woman from Ashdod, on whom we recently reported (https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/01/27-yo-female-refusenik-in-israeli-jai.html ). But first, some background:
1. Orah was imprisoned over two weeks ago, for ostensibly submitting her Religiosity-Certification somewhat late -- a whopping TEN years ago.
2. Orah is yet another religious woman suffering for maintaining her refusal to submit to the military draft, which is absolutely prohibited according to leading Rabbis across the spectrum.
3. It must be emphasized that even according to the Army's contention that Orah was late in sending in her religiosity certification, that is clearly a technicality. As such, it is certainly no reason to allow the government to imprison a girl for refusing to enlist in the military.
4. In a normal system, technicalities like that are dealt with altogether differently. However, in Israel, the Draft Office is employing incarceration frequently against girls refusing to enlist, for such minor legal infractions as sending in certification late.
5. This pattern of incarceration over minor procedural infractions is clearly a policy. And it's a policy clearly aimed at a goal, that goal being drafting girls who unfortunately get caught on such minor technicalities. That is intolerable as a policy, or otherwise. No girl should ever be forced into the Army, regardless of their religious affiliation or observance, or lack thereof. Similarly, no girl should be incarcerated for refusal to enlist, in the wake of such technical errors (or otherwise). Such incarceration, in essence, clearly serves as a means of attempting to compel compliance with the military draft.
6. Orah does not have a private attorney, but rather is presently reliant on the performance of her government-paid lawyer, and that there is no specific, clear path to her release in sight at this time. [Moreover, our information is that her family was dissuaded from procurement of private counsel. In our view, if this report is accurate, this itself is scandalous. But that particular scandal may not be one for which the government bears direct responsibility. We've seen a pattern of both incarcerated girls - and girls encumbered with legal complications with the Draft Offices - receiving misinformation from misguided or misinformed activists.]
7. The recently revealed scandal involves two staff members at that Military Prison (Four). According to a complaint officially submitted very recently, those two staff members illicitly denied attorney access to Orah, as well as to another recently incarcerated girl - also a religious objector to military service. These staff members allegedly denied both of these religious objectors the opportunity to meet a specific female attorney. The incidents allegedly occurred on and since Dec. 25, '19. The lawyer in question is a private attorney, who has provided assistance to multiple girls incarcerated in military prison over their refusal to violate the Torah (and their personal modesty) by enlisting in the Army. We hold back on publishing the names of the suspects for the time being.
8. Is this mistreatment of religious girls motivated by antireligious animus, or do these girls just happen to be religious? Firstly, such misconduct has no place in or outside of government, regardless of motivation.
Secondly, regardless of intentions, the religious and legal rights of these girls are being denied, according to the complaint.
Thirdly, unfortunately, within the Draft Office and Military Justice system, there does appear to be a systemic tolerance for anti-religious bias, an example being the now-resolved case of Avigail Leah H. bas Rus Ester.
(See https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/08/alh-report-2-28-augviolating-vineyard.html and https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/09/violating-vineyard-update.html .)
Another example, brought to the fore by a recent development in her case, is the plight of Ziva bas Mazal M. (https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/10/racial-profiling-or-pure-antireligious.html). Recently, she just received a letter from the Draft Office ("Maitav") reiterating their denial of her right to obtain a religious exemption. They don't even have what to say to pretend that they have some question about her religiosity. To the contrary, they indicate that they may accept her religiosity claim, but only after serving three months in the Army. Well, if she's religious, that would be both against Halacha, and, le'havdil alfei havdolos, against her secular legal rights. G-d willing, we hope to publish alot more on this particularly discriminatory travesty.
9. Another issue that urgently requires attention is the process of delegation of such cases to activists. A number of the activists who have been most effective in assisting female religious objectors feel hampered by lack of information. The primary manner of fighting for imprisoned women like Orah, Tal-Yah and Maital is via disseminating accurate and detailed information. The government knows that very well, and appears to be orchestrating the delegation of cases accordingly, so that the activists who take more militant approach to freeing these women don't get access to the case or the requisite information (at least not without a lot of painstaking and time-consuming work).
10. Additionally, while it's important that Chareidi activists are involved in helping, or trying to assist this non-Chareidi young woman (Orah), the vocal protest of the national-religious community is vital to put a stop to this ongoing targeting of non-Chareidi / national-religious women and girls by the Army.
11. Does the government see the rightwing national-religious community as an ally willing enough to sacrifice their own daughters to conscription, in violation of Torah Law, for strongly held nationalistic ideals? Or do they hope to hoodwink the community into averting their focus as the government pursues individual girls not connected with mainstream communities and influential leaders? Whatever the case may be, it's incumbent on all religious Jews to liberate the Israeli government of the notion that they can continue to intimidate, terrorize, arrest, incarcerate and persecute such girls with impunity in the future.
12. We've already reported (quoting Ma'ariv Online) on the government goal of reaching a shocking 40% Army enlistment of national-religious high school girls*, G-d forbid. They're clearly admitting to targeting national-religious girls.
13. That means that all Jews have a commensurate obligation to escalate our vigilance for that particular targeted national-religious sector, regardless of any differences of opinion, shitos, etc.
14. The attitude of some people that each group should just focus on saving "it's own" girls is wrong, not only from a Halachic perspective, but from a practical one as well. The government has demonstrated itself more than adept at "divide-and-conquer." Thus we must remain ahead of the game by excelling in "all-for-one," regardless of who that "one" is. Thereby, the daughter you help save may, one day, be your own.
May we merit the Final Redemption speedily in the merit of authentic unity, one that sacrifices neither ideological integrity, maintenance of proper boundaries, cognizance of the bigger picture, or broader communal responsibility.
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* https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/11/online-updates-in-culture-wars-parshas.html
http://firstamendmentactivist.blogspot.com/2019/11/culture-wars-updates-online-vayaira.html?m=1
(Also reported in our Jewish Press Dispatch column at the time of those postings.)
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The Tenth of Teves:
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For a relevant post, with a perspective on the fast of the Tenth of Teves, see:
https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/01/tenth-of-teves-day-of-reckoning.html
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