TENS OF THOUSANDS [20,000] OF ORTHODOX JEWS IN NEW YORK PROTEST IDF DRAFT LAW

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ORTHODOX JEWS IN NEW YORK PROTEST IDF DRAFT LAW

NEW YORK - Close to 20,000 Orthodox Jews gathered on Sunday at the Barclays Center basketball arena in Brooklyn to protest the Israeli law mandating Orthodox conscription into the IDF, which they described as “Israel’s persecution of religious Jews”.

“Since 1948, when the government was founded, they understood that there is such a thing as [Yeshiva] students who are studying and they are exempt of military services,” he said. “But for the past few years [Israeli politicians] have been trying to tighten the screw, and basically forcefully recruiting and forcefully bringing them in for military service, to which they object.”

“Unprecedented things happened: there are people who protest those conditions, people who are upset that [Israel] violates their right to their religious adherence,” Rabbi Niederman added. “When they go out and speak their minds, they are badly beaten.”

“We are here, starting this campaign and making sure that the world knows that unfortunately Orthodox Jews are being persecuted because of their religious beliefs,” Rabbi Niederman told The Post. “This harassment of freedom of religion, freedom of assembly and speech must stop. We demand this from other countries, so we definitely demand it from a country that calls itself the Jewish state.”

“They don’t need manpower to secure their borders,” he said. “There is a hidden agenda here to try to change what the Jewish community believes in, forcing them to change their religion and culture.”

Despite the anti-Zionist nature of Sunday’s gathering and the Satmar group in general, Rabbi Niederman wished to make clear: “We are not anti-Israel,”

“We pray three times a day and we are yearning for the time that we are going to come back to Israel. It will be a time of freedom, no fights, and people will be there to worship Hashem,” he said. “Our message to the government of Israel is that we are here, we will continue to be here and nobody is going to force us to change.”