The case of the Hesder soldiers who were sentenced to jail for heeding their Rabbanim was not an isolated incident but part of a series of confrontations over religious issues that have escalated in recent weeks, Arutz Sheva reported.

Fellow Hesder soldiers told Arutz Sheva that there have been ongoing tensions between the company commanders and Hesder soldiers in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to force them to violate their religious standards.

They recounted that about 10 days ago, the company commander decided to hold a training exercise on Shabbos involving evacuating casualties and inserting an IV even though there was no operational urgency that justified holding it specifically on Shabbos.

The soldiers said that they asked their commanders to postpone the exercise to another time. “We asked why it was necessary to carry out such an exercise on Shabbat when there was no professional or operational necessity for it,” they said. “We did not receive a substantive answer.”

After Shabbos, they spoke to the Brigade Rabbi and described the exercise, and he confirmed that there was no justification for conducting such an exercise on Shabbos.

The soldiers added that there was also no operational urgency for the most recent incident, when soldiers were asked to board an APC with a female paramedic. The soldiers said that the incident was presented to the Brigade Rabbi as an operational activity when, in fact, it was a routine activity.

“We feel that there is a deliberate attempt here to provoke a confrontation with the religious soldiers and the Hesder yeshiva students,” the soldiers said. “Instead of finding solutions and enabling joint service based on mutual respect, time and again they choose confrontation.”

They emphasized that these confrontations also carry an operational cost. “The battalion commander has now lost 15 soldiers who were sent to ten days in military prison,” one of them said. “Ultimately, one has to ask who will go into battle with him. At a time when the IDF needs every soldier, it is unfortunate that energy is being invested in internal confrontations instead of strengthening unity.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)