An on-duty IDF judge on Monday night, the eve of 16 Adar II, sentenced Ashdod talmid yeshiva Yaakov Yisrael Paz to 10 days in a military jail for being AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave).
Paz was stopped near the entrance to his come community of Elad on Shushan Purim. He was intoxicated. A check by police revealed he was AWOL from the IDF. He was transferred to military police and brought before a military judge later in the evening.
According to people who know Paz, he did not respond to the first and second draft notice in compliance to instructions from Gedolei Yisrael Shlita not to cooperate with IDF authorities.
Askanim announced on Tuesday 16 Adar II that protests will be held on Wednesday in a number of areas around the country, which are to be announced. The talmid attends the Grodna Yeshiva and is expected to receive support from his rabbonim and roshei yeshiva. The askanim call on the tzibur to be mispallel for יעקב ישראל בן ענת.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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24 Responses
In American English, or perhaps one should say American “legalese”, AWOL means you have joined the military and signed a contract to submit yourself to military law. In olden days one “took the king’s shilling” to indicate you were signing away your rights as to become a soldier. In America they told those joining to take a step forward or some other actual act to indicate acceptance of the oath of enlistment.
The person arrested was a yeshiva student, not a soldier. He is a civilian subjected to military justice (in the United States, that became unconstitutional in the 18th century, at least for citizens within the US). He was arrested for refusing to join the army. Perhaps he was an evader who played the game poorly, perhaps he is a conscientious resister to military service (the latter appears to be the case). However he is no way “AWOL” or a “Deserter” — he is a yeshiva student being persecuted by an anti-semitic militaristic regime for his loyalty to Torah.
akuperma, who says the American definition of AWOL is the same as it is in Israel? Perhaps Israeli law is different than American law?
I’m not saying what was done is right, I’m just saying that if you’re going to nitpick on something, make sure you have all your facts straight first!
He was intoxicated on SHUSHAN PURIM. ELAD IS NOT MEKUFEI CHOMA. This boy is giving all the other bnei torah a bad name. Maybe some of them DO BELONG in the IDF
Why do we have to antagonize the Israeli people.
On one hand we say, that We protect the Israeli people by constantly learning B’hasmodoh G’doileh.
But here they see this spiritual person walking around drunk.
Their children are standing on the Front while he is drinking.
“Paz was stopped near the entrance to his come community of Elad on Shushan Purim. He was intoxicated” – that was a masterpiece of whitewashing. YWN omits the fact that he was not merely intoxicated, he was DRIVING while intoxicated.
This is similar to a previous case where a talmid (of the same yeshiva) was arrested for driving a car without a license (no, he hadn’t left it at home – he’d never bothered to get one) and he was then transferred to the military police when his record showed that he was AWOL.
These two talmidim had these things in common: 1. They study in the same yeshiva 2. They both show a criminal disregard for human life 3. They both show a lack of respect for the law 4. They both expect to be treated as martyrs ‘shenitfesu al divrei torah’.
#2- The US does not currently have an active draft as Israel does. But at such times as the US activates the draft (as in the eras of the world wars and Vietnam) – are those who fail to report not considered AWOL and subject to military justice?
WHAT is r aaron leib’s current opinion on this issue??
The Torah world needs to get in the streets across Israel, hold up traffic and tie up the police, let them arrest thousands of Chareidis — who will immediately be replenished with thousands of more Chareidim coming out and trying up the streets and police while the thousands of others are arrested with no room in the jails for tens of thousands of Chareidi arresstees.
And keep this up for a couple of weeks grinding traffic and business to a halt across Israel.
DaMoshe: You can’t be absent if you are not supposed/obligated to be there. Official leave can’t be requiredif you are not part of the class, organization, etc. So it ddoesn’t matter what country you are in. As far as being unconstitutional, the point was that it is something to think about.
It’s a cute trick. They aren’t willing to put up with the costs of jailing the whole community. So instead, they took a page from the terrorists book and they randomly arrest individuals and put them in jail to scare everyone into thinking they might be next.
DaMoshe: Of course American law is different. Israeli law is derived from British law, as applied to the Empire in the 20th century (i.e. the law used in places such as Ireland and India, that were constantly in rebellion). It is similar to the law in modern England, minus civil rights. In America we had a revolution in the late 18th century, and among the first things we did was to enact a “bill of rights” that among other things protected such rights as trial by jury, due process, and banning military courts from trying civilians. To an American, the Israeli system strikes one as pure tyranny (the type American rejected in 1776).
And in all fairness, compared to many other countries in Africa and Asia, Israel has a good and humane legal system. In places such as North Korea, he’ld have been lucky if he ended up in death camp rather than being slowly executed. But as Jews, we should hope that our misguided zionist cousins can do better than “beloved leader”.
Akuperma…avoiding a draft in any country is considered AWOL, even in the US.
B’h he is sitting in prison where he can sit and shtieg uninterrupted for 10 days. Free food, free bais medrish,3 minyanin a day. What better life can he have?
“are those who fail to report not considered AWOL and subject to military justice ”
No. The Vietnam draft dodgers were prosecuted in civilian courts. Perhaps the most famous case was the famous boxer Muhammed Ali, who was indicted and convicted of failure to report for induction by a civilian federal court. An appeals court upheld the conviction but the US Supreme Court overturned the conviction 8-0 on procedural grounds.
Yagel Libi (and others)- Draft evasion and draft resistance in the United States is a CIVIL offense. IF a Grand Jury indicts (yes I know the joke that most prosecutors believe they could convince a grand jury to indict a potato), one is then tried by a jury of one’s peers – twelve random citizens who have the right to ignore the prosecutor and acquit. Those whose objections to military service are religious (which is true of many hareidim – the ones who support the state tend to serve in the IDF, and note his yeshiva is advocating civil disobedience rather than evasion – they are refusing to even register) were not prosecuted. In the US, only someone who enlisted in, or at least submitted to conscription and took the oath of allegiance to the military, was subject to military law. AWOL is a military offense, with no right of fair trial (military trials are inherently unfair, which to the military is a feature not a bug).
But it is true that the United States with its strong protection human rights is exceptional, and it is unfair to compare a small third world country such as Israel to the USA (sort of like comparing some yeshiva kids playing baseball to the professional major leagues).
STILL no interest in learning any Torah, Mr. Kuperman?
Yanky55 – So do you have any views on the issues confronting Klal Yisrael? Do you even care? Being indifferent as to matters of life and death is perhaps a sign of either great piety (it’s all in Ha-Shem’s hands anyways), or mental illness.
#16- There’s a HUGE difference between CARING about what goes on amongst Klal Yisrael and POSTING about them on YWN at all hours of the day.
According to you, then, the gedolim are indifferent, being that you don’t see them posting their opinions here all day. They learn Torah. They do not post about those who do not!
In addition, my opinions are well known here. No need to comment on every article that relates to Israel. I simply HATE hypocrisy. Thus, the need to point out yours.
“So do you have any views on the issues confronting Klal Yisrael? Do you even care?”
We have views, but we don’t have to mouth off all the time. Most of us are more nuanced than you and don’t look for the easy way out like you. Your hateful views are flat and predictable.
In Judaism learning Torah is most important. Speaking of which, I need to go learn.
#18- Well said!
#16 akuperma: Re: Yanky it is the latter.
akuperma: Yasher Koach for always being there defending the Torah and the Bnei Torah. Disregard what the enemies of the Torah here throw at you.
Stop playing around and daven for him!!
akuperma you have the support of the whole oilam hatorah keep it up.. forget the kalei hadaas v’daas baal habayis which is hepech daas toirah
Thank you akuperma once again.