The battle over military enlistment intensified overnight as Moti Mishkovsky, a student at Netivot Yitzchak Yeshiva in Tel Aviv, was arrested near Ben Shemen Forest.
Mishkovsky, the grandson of Rabbi Natan Zochovsky, head of the Gaon Yaakov Yeshiva, was detained by Israel Police after authorities determined that he was listed as a deserter from the IDF. He was subsequently transferred to the Military Police.
The arrest quickly sparked protests. After word of the detention spread, groups of haredi youths began organizing in the area. Road blockages shifted the focus to the Maccabim checkpoint, where clashes and disturbances broke out between protesters and police forces dispatched to the scene.
The arrest comes against the backdrop of a dramatic directive issued this week by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. In a response submitted to the High Court of Justice, the attorney general stated that the security establishment and police must resume proactive operations to arrest draft evaders from all sectors of the population, without discrimination.
At the same time, the document highlighted the challenges on the ground. Security officials told Baharav-Miara that proactive arrests within the haredi community are accompanied by “significant difficulties" and widespread disturbances, making it difficult for police to operate effectively in the immediate term.
Security officials now fear that stepped-up enforcement could lead to additional violent confrontations across the country.