JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Last Thursday night, at 3:00 a.m., Maor Wazana, an 18-year-old yeshiva student at the Mishkan David Yeshiva in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem headed by Rabbi Yisrael Gabay, was arrested by police. He was transferred to the Military Police after it became clear that he was considered a draft dodger, and within a few hours he was sent to a military prison.
It should be noted that Wazana, a graduate of the Orchos Meir Yeshiva in the Beit-Vegan neighborhood, is a full-fledged yeshiva student in every respect.
He was arrested while driving home last Friday night, when the vehicle he was in stopped at a gas station near Ma’ale Adumim. At that moment, police officers approached him and asked for identification.
A check in the police database showed that he was classified as an “evader,” after failing to report to the draft offices when he reached the age of enlistment, in accordance with the instructions of leading rabbinic authorities. He was taken to the Ma’ale Adumim police station, from where the Military Police were summoned. They transferred Wazana to the military detention center in Anatot, near Jerusalem. From there, in the morning hours, he was moved to Prison 10 in Kfar Yona, near Beit Lid.
As soon as news of the “criminal arrest” became known, the organization Am Kadosh stepped in. Attorney Shlomo Hadad began representing the young man before the prison authorities. After making contact with him, he provided full legal guidance on how to conduct himself with army officials.
Shortly before Shabbat began, the yeshiva student’s hearing was held. He was arraigned before a military judicial officer and was sentenced to ten days imprisonment in the military prison.
The arrest of a yeshiva student dedicated to his Torah studies, and his being thrown into a military prison, was met with shock and great anger within the charedi community, as the young man’s only “offense” was his desire to devote himself to Torah and avodah.
Charedi communal leaders stressed that “The charedi community will not sit idly by in the face of this criminal arrest. We will shake heaven and earth against the persecution of yeshiva students that has been intensifying in recent times. We view this arrest as a dangerous escalation.”
The Jerusalem Faction announced that it will be initiating protests on Sunday due to the arrest of Vazana, the first such arrest since the “million-man protest” in Jerusalem last month.
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