An attempt by Israeli Military Police to arrest a yeshiva bochur at his family home in Maale Adumim ended without an arrest early Monday morning after dozens of protesters rushed to the scene. The forces ultimately withdrew, and those gathered broke into celebratory dancing after it became clear the bochur was not at home.

The incident began shortly after 12:30 a.m., when the Tzeva Shachor alert system reported that Military Police officers were attempting to arrest a bochur at his family’s residence on Tzemach HaSadeh Street in Maale Adumim. About 30 minutes later, the system reported that the officers had left the area.

It later emerged that the yeshiva bochur whom the Military Police had sought to arrest was actually at the yeshiva where he studies in Yerushalayim’s Ramat Eshkol neighborhood and was not at his family home when the officers arrived. His brother, who is scheduled to be married in the coming days, was at the house.

Following the alert, dozens of people converged on the home in an effort to prevent the arrest. After the Military Police withdrew, participants gathered outside the Nager family’s home and celebrated with singing and dancing alongside the chosson, the bochur’s brother.

Video published by Kan 11 reporter Daniel Groveis captured one of the officers telling protest organizers, “Look, I didn’t bring even one police vehicle. I came alone.” Protesters responded, “Kol hakavod.”

The attempted arrest came amid growing tensions between the chareidi parties and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu over legislation concerning the military draft of bnei yeshivos.

As previously reported, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs recently sent a letter to Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Boaz Bismuth outlining proposed legislation intended to prevent the arrest of lomdei Torah through what he described as “effective supervision.”

In the letter, Fuchs wrote that, as a direct result of the High Court’s ruling, yeshivos enrolling draft-eligible students have lost all government funding, while the students and their families have also been subjected to various financial sanctions. He said that, following the ruling, the Attorney General instructed the IDF to carry out frequent arrest operations in cooperation with the Israel Police.

A senior source in the chareidi parties remarked, “We’ve had enough of words and promises. Netanyahu will be judged only by his actions. As long as we don’t see action, no legislation will move forward in the current Knesset until it is dissolved.”

{Matzav.com}