Hundreds of Orthodox Jews protested Israel’s Middle East and domestic policies in New York on December 24. Gathering outside the Israeli Mission to the United Nations in New York, Orthodox Jews condemned the recent Israeli law amendment which forces Orthodox Jews into conscription into military service. Shouting “We don’t want to get drafted” and reading chapters from Torah, the demonstrators said that young Israelis who reject conscription are jailed by the government.
Explaining Orthodox Jews’ refusal to be affiliated with the Israeli state, Rabbi Moishe Indig was reported as saying, “Our faith does not allow to set up new rules every day; as Orthodox Jews, we are against the State of Israel and every war it wages.” Another demonstrator, Jacob Kellner, expressed Orthodox Jews’ criticism of Israeli policies in the Middle East. “The Israeli state and army are illegal because holy scriptures do not confer on the Jews the right to establish a state,” Kellner said. Orthodox Judaism emphasises the following of the Torah’s laws and ethics as legislated in holy scripture.