Hate Happens Here Too

BS"D

Hate Happens Here Too:

Religious Persecution of Righteous Women Standing Up Against the Immoral Israeli Military Draft 

By Binyomin Feinberg,

FeinbergBinyomin@gmail.com

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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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*** IDF-Draft Refusenik-Watch ***

Update:  20 Teves, 5780 °° Jan. 16, '20

1. We've noticed a pattern of recently incarcerated religious female Refuseniks being denied timely hearings by military court.  Those courts, in spite of their undying (or, perhaps, unborn) commitment to Human Rights, find ways to postpone hearings for girls languishing in prison, keeping them incarcerated in the interim - in the absence of unusually intense public protest.

2.  Such cruel extension of the prison stays of these righteous women /girls would be objectionable enough on the basis of their sheer disregard for a semblance of Due Process alone. 

3.  But, perhaps to evoke North Korean sentimentalities, the Israeli military prison personnel don't stop there. The military prison hosts provide a truly unforgettable incarceration experience, replete with a robust measure of ongoing torment for female religious objectors.  This tends to include attempts by the prison personnel to break both the girl and her family members, emotionally and psychologically. (Perhaps these persecutory prison policies are meant as altruistic reminders to these young women of the value of Constitutional Liberties, appreciated best by prison staff indulging in their absence).

4.  This brutal mistreatment is clearly aimed at breaking the girls, and punishment for their brave resistance to the draft. The government wouldn't dare perpetrate this if they'd know we would not tolerate it. Thus, their ongoing antireligious persecution of these girls is a kitrug against those who bear responsibility for it, by virtue of their incessant passivity in the face of unrelenting government persecution of innocent girls. Again, we are talking about girls faithfully following the Halacha that brands enlistment in the military as "yai'horaig ve'al ya'avor," something which we are obligated to sacrifice our very lives to avoid.

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5.  There are three prominent "Trojan Horse" hazards that frequently endanger many of the who girls seek an exemption from the IDF female Draft: 

a) Entering the Draft Office;

b) agreeing to a Religiosity Interview, a "Rayon Dat" (RD); and

c) seeking a psychological exemption, a "Petur Nafshi" (PN)[partially due to the recently reported revelation that the IDF will likely soon challenge many PN exemptions already provided, perhaps nullifying them retroactively].

6.  If more girls would be properly alerted to the danger (or even just the Torah prohibition) of submitting to a Rayon Dat, or even merely entering the Draft Offices, they would likely avoid falling into the trap set for them, and for thousands of other religious girls, by military draft officials hellbent on forcing religious girls into the Army by all means available.

7.  The military service exemption for religious girls is normally to be automatic, by Israeli law.

8.  If the Army manages to find a substantive basis to question her religiosity, they may be able to investigate her further before allowing her an military exemption. 

9.  The RD provides the Army a veneer of legal coverage for their illegal denial of a religious girl's religious rights, if they trip up the girl in any way. In general, RD interviews/ interrogations are specially designed to probe religiously weaker, and even stronger girls for knowledge gaps and psychological vulnerabilities - that can be manipulated to entrap them in the military.

10.  Very often, the particular question a girl may fail to answer is a question whose failure to answer had no bearing whatsoever on her religiosity. But, of course, that inconvenience didn't get in the way of the government arresting such Refusenik girls, and throwing her into military prison, as if they were criminals.

11.  One lesson to be learned here is that if a girl - even a girl of weak religious upbringing - remains resolute in refusing to submit to a RD, she thereby avoids providing the Army a pretext to feign genuine suspicion of her claim of religiosity. Thus, she denies the Army the coveted opportunity to rob her of her legal entitlement to an automatic religious exemption.

12.  It may be difficult to say "no" (to a military order to appear for a RD). But, in many cases, it ultimately proves far, far more difficult not to. Being resolute from the outset can avoid untold torment in military prison later on.

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