Overview
- Agudas Yisrael chair Yitzhak Goldknopf and MK Meir Porush visited a military detention facility on Sunday to meet yeshiva students held for refusing IDF enlistment orders.
- Porush called the situation "unbearable" and an "absurdity," while leaders framed the detentions as punishment for continuing Torah study.
- Goldknopf described detainees as dedicated learners and, along with other haredi figures, rejected portrayals of them as criminals or draft evaders.
- Porush said he briefed the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on his visit and on the detainees' conditions and concerns.
- The dispute deepened as an IDF Personnel Directorate official reportedly downplayed enforcement impacts, whereas Lt. Col. Avigdor Dickstein said steps including imprisonment have been "unequivocally effective" in boosting enlistment.