Once again the "Peleg" faction of the Haredi community is sending its boys out into the streets to protest.. they are right now out on main roads and intersections in various parts of the country blocking traffic and expressing their protest. They are once again protesting the arrest of a young man declared AWOL after failing to appear to sign the paperwork to get his automatic deferment fo service as a yeshiva student. The Peleg people, led by Rav Shmuel Auerbach, do not believe in cooperating with the process and are against any such cooperation with the IDF to the extreme.
In response, Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman has instructed his office to look into the possibility of canceling the deferments available to the two yeshivas under the leadership of Rav Auerbach - Maalos Hatorah in Jerusalem and Grodna in Ashdod. As well, to look into the possiblity of canceling all government funding to these yeshivas.
source: Radio Kol Hai news
I think that these people have the right to protest (legal protest, with permits, that is) just like anybody else, and they should not be punished for exercising that right to protest. They should not lose funding because of protests and they should not lose their rights and standing vis-a-vis the army because of protests.
That being said, I don't think it is a bad idea to punish them,, perhaps with these same forms of punishment, but for other reasons. Not for protesting, but for the regular incitement against soldiers in the IDF, especially Haredi soldiers - they have been openly involved in the "Chardakim" campaign against Haredi soldiers, even if they are not the people behind it (I don't know if they are or are not behind it, but they have been involved in it).
Additionally, for a group that uses the claim of the highest level of importance for learning Torah and that it therefore deserves to let them off the hook for many things, they are spending an awful lot of time outside the beis medrash with these protests. While they shouldn't be punished for protesting, they are not fulfilling their obligations to society as they claim to be - defending the nation with their torah learning. a protest every now and again might be ok, but the regularity of their involvement in these things takes serious amounts of time away from their torah learning.
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