Civil war looming in Israel

Israeli Persecution against Orthodox Jews

For Immediate Release:

Venue: European Commission Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium
Date: Monday 1st July 2013
Time: 15:00 CEST

As tensions between the State of Israel and the Orthodox Jewish community over new draft legislation reaches a climax and civil war threatens to engulf the country, European Jewry is reacting: a massive demonstration in Brussels, to be attended by over 1,000 rabbinical leaders and delegates from the UK, France, Austria, Belgium and other European countries who will call for universal recognition and support for the oppressed Orthodox minority in Israel.

The Zionist movement set out to dominate and eradicate religious observance and recast the Jewish people in a new, nationalistic mould. They say they need the Orthodox to share the burden, but that is only to camouflage their true goal: to integrate the Orthodox into their anti-religious society.

Israeli generals have freely admitted that they have no need and do not even know how to deal with a large influx of religious soldiers - belying the share-the-burden argument.

It is clear that Israeli leaders see the army as the ideal environment where they can efficiently carry out mass transformation of the Orthodox community, and therefore they now want to force them to join the army even at the cost of compromising its own capabilities. The army has always been the state’s melting pot, where religious Jews from traditional communities all over the world were transformed into secular Zionists.

Orthodox rabbinic leaders in Israel have stated clearly that complying with this new draft is a violation of the Jewish religion and their community will resist this decree by all means necessary. Their young men will rather go to prison than join the Israeli army.

The Israeli state is now using unprecedented tactics of intimidation to transform the Jewish religion; its hatred towards religious observance knows no boundaries and has grown to a degree as never seen before.

In Jerusalem and New York, massive demonstrations were held in the past weeks, attended by tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews, to cry out against the decree.

It is anticipated that the leaders of the European nations will bring pressure to bear on the State of Israel to change this plan, and allow the religious Jews in the Holy Land to continue living and practicing their faith in peace.

Next week's European demonstration is being held in front of the EU offices in Brussels in order to appeal to the European Commission to provide international protection to those of the Orthodox community who flee Israel and to ensure that all its member states recognize them as refugees and political asylum seekers.

European Jewry hopes and prays that the EU will act in accordance with its charter: "The European Union sees human rights as universal and indivisible. It actively promotes and defends them both within its borders and when engaging in relations with non-EU countries."

Contact:
Rabbi Shulem Teitelbaum

Tel: +44 (0)20 8815 4451
Fax: +44 (0)20 7502 0872
rabbishapiro@baismedrash.com