Yesterday, hundreds of yeshiva students from the communities of Tifrah, Netivot, Ofakim, and surrounding areas, arrived at a central municipal building in Netivot to obtain military deferments instead of traveling to an IDF recruitment office.
The move was initiated by the Va'ad Hayeshivot (Board of Yeshivas), which is responsible for arranging the status of yeshiva students.
The official reason for this move is to make obtaining deferrals easier for yeshiva students in the south, who in the past have been forced to travel long distances to the recruitment office in Be'er Sheva, which is not connected to most of the southern communities where the majority of the haredi yeshiva students live.
The move may also be aimed at the anti-enlistment campaign by the Peleg Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Faction), an extremist haredi faction which opposes yeshiva students going to recruitment offices offices even to obtain military deferments. It may be hoped that yeshiva students who would previously been arrested for refusing to show up at a recruitment office will now be able to obtain their deferments.