Hundreds of people took part in a post-Sabbath “Melave Malka” event at Prison Six, in solidarity with several hesder yeshiva soldiers imprisoned there.
The student-soldiers are being held there because they refuse to leave their yeshiva, Har Bracha, and sign up with another one. The army is demanding that they do so, following its breaking ties with yeshiva Dean Rabbi Eliezer Melamed because of his criticism of the army.
Rabbi Melamed once wrote that top officers are concerned with "their pensions, careers and politics." Specifically, he wrote, "It's been years that for many officers, personal advancement is their principal goal" – but preceded these remarks with this: "The commandment of defending the nation and land even at the risk to one's life still very much applies – and this can only be done in a national army framework. Therefore, even if the top brass is problematic, it is better to stand together against our enemy than to break down and surrender. For with all the criticism, the general goal of the politicians and commanders is to protect the Nation of Israel. The risk of coming under the command of corrupt commanders is less than the risk of detracting from our military strength… We must therefore strengthen ourselves in Torah deeds and enlist in the army to help our nation."
Later, Rabbi Melamed was also cited for his ruling that soldiers must refuse orders to evict Jews from Judea and Samaria and/or demolish their homes. Former Defense and Foreign Affairs Minister Moshe Arens said at the time that Defense Minister Ehud Barak was “endangering the country” by ousting the Har Bracha yeshiva from the Hesder Torah study-soldier program.
Barak went ahead with his threat, ousting Har Bracha from the program and demanding that the students sign up with another yeshiva or leave yeshiva studies altogether and sign up with the army for the full three-year service. Several soldiers refused both options, insisting that their rabbi had a right to his Torah-based opinion, that they had signed up at this yeshiva because they wanted to learn and serve there, and that their being shunted from one yeshiva to another was merely another part of Barak’s war against the Judea and Samaria population.
Among those who came to the Saturday night solidarity event at Prison Six in Atlit, near Haifa, was MK Aryeh Eldad of the National Union party. Protestors had earlier hung a huge banner on the hills above the prison that read, “We are all with the soldiers of Har Bracha. A good soldier does not expel Jews.”
The agitation in the IDF against anti-Jewish orders has even begun to touch on orders that are far from clearly anti-Halakhic. A Nachal brigade soldier was sentenced last week to 20 days in army prison, after he refused to take part in the arrest of Breslover hassidim who sneaked into Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem (Nablus), abandoned by the IDF several years ago as it was surrounded by hostile Arabs who attacked and then desecrated it. The Shechem Core Group (Garin Shechem) praised the soldier, adding, “It is obvious that the abandonment of Joseph’s Tomb has caused turmoil among the soldiers. The time has come to renew Jewish presence at the site and in the city of Shechem.”