Hundreds of national religious women attended a rally on Monday evening calling for the enlistment of haredim in the IDF.
The rally, initiated by the women of the "Partners in Service" forum, which includes women from religious Zionism, whose family members have been mobilized for over a year, opened with a display of stretchers, bearing the sign "Need a replacement under the stretcher."
The participants carried stretchers on the side of the road and waved signs against the draft law, while calling on the haredim to enlist and share in the burden.
Rabbanit Avivit Granot, mother of Capt. Amitay Zvi Granot, who fell in the war, shared her pain during the rally: "Amitay loved life. He had many dreams and plans for the future. He dreamed of building a home and returning to study Torah in a yeshiva. A few hours before that terrible battle from which he did not return, he promised his fiancee: 'the next time I’m out, we’ll put up a chupa [wedding canopy] and get married.' When the order came on that terrible morning, after dozens of terrorists tried to infiltrate the northern border, Amitay did exactly what he needed to do so that life in Israel would continue to thrive. This is what the Torah commands us to do in a mitzvah (i.e. existential) war."
Noa Mevorach, one of the forum leaders, whose husband served as a combat medic for 240 days, added: "During Sukkot, when my daughter stood before me with tears in her eyes, after not seeing her father for a very long time, I also decided to say out loud 'I am here' and join the public struggle that requires everyone to enlist for the security of the country that I love so much, for the sake of my children and for the sake of my home."
Dr. Tehilla Elitzur, a senior member of the forum and mother of a reservist who is completing his third round of duty and a total of 260 days, said: "On the eve of Sukkot, I wrote an open letter to Knesset member Aryeh Deri, but I did not receive a response. On the other hand, together with my group members, I have received a flood of letters from you, hundreds and thousands of women who joined our group, partners in service. Some of you are standing here and many others at home, because even tonight they are alone bathing children, dealing with laundry and homework after a day's work and before another night crazy with worry.”
“We all know very well that this is what our Torah, the Torah of Life, commands us to do in the face of enemies who rise up against us to annihilate us, and demands from each and every one of us: ‘you shall not stand on the blood of your neighbor.’ This is where we derive our strength and determination from, and this is where our demand comes from as well: it is no longer possible to exempt the haredi society from enlistment. It is no longer possible to accept the claim that the Torah disallows enlistment in the IDF," she concluded.