Both the spiritual leaders of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and the Degel HaTorah faction on Monday called on members of the Military Police to refuse orders to arrest draft-dodging yeshiva students, warning they could face divine repercussions and excommunication.

The comments came a day after police clashed with rioters in the southern town of Ofakim over the arrest of a Haredi draft dodger. Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the war.

Speaking with Haredi radio station Kol Barama, Rabbi Moshe Maya, a member of Shas’s ruling Council of Torah Sages, stated that “anyone who despises the scholars has no part in the world to come” and that there is “no greater dishonor of a scholar than arresting him and putting him in prison.”

He added that for anyone who “disgraces” a Haredi draft dodger by detaining him, Jewish law states that they........

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