TheJerusalem Faction (Hebrew:הפלג הירושלמי,romanized: HaPeleg HaYerushalmi, or simplyPeleg Yerushalmi) is anIsraeli Haredi political organization based inJerusalem. It was founded in 2012 byShmuel Auerbach as a reaction to theBnei Brak-basedDegel HaTorah's perceived moderate approach to the question ofconscription of Haredim into theIsrael Defence Forces by the Israeli government that came up following the expiration of theTal Law.
The organization is known for itscivil disobedience against Haredi conscription that takes the form of street demonstrations that often end in arrests. It has its own newspaper,Hapeles, and political party,Bnei Torah [he] which has won city council seats in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, andModi'in Illit. It has been referred to as "hard-line",[1][2] "extremist",[3] and "radical".
Thestatus quo agreement, agreed upon in theKnesset (Israeli parliament) informally betweenDavid Ben Gurion and the religious parties, granted draft exemptions toyeshiva students who qualified to the status ofTorato Umanuto (lit. 'Torah is his trade'). The initial cap for this agreement was set at four hundred men per year, which was subsequently removed byMenachem Begin in1977 after he won the premiership. Since then, the amount of exemptions has swelled to over one hundred times that number.[4]
For many years, theTorato Umanuto arrangement had the status of a regulation under the jurisdiction of theMinistry of Defense (Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion also had the Defense portfolio). In 1998, theHigh Court of Justice (a role of theSupreme Court of Israel) ruled that the Defense minister had no authority to determine the extent of these exemptions. The Supreme Court postponed the application of the ruling to give the government time to resolve the matter.[5]
In accordance with the judicial ruling, Prime MinisterEhud Barak set up theTal committee in 1999. The committee reported its findings in April 2000, and its recommendations were approved by the Knesset in July 2002; the new "Tal Law", as it came to be known, was passed with 51 votes in favour and 41 against. The new law provided for a continuation of theTorato Umanuto arrangement under specific conditions laid down in the law, such as substituting a one-year civilian service, instead of the 3-year military conscription. It was hoped that the number of exemptions would gradually diminish. However, the new law did not put an end to controversies and disagreements.[5]
In 2005, then-Justice MinisterTzipi Livni stated that the Tal Law, which by then had yet to be fully implemented, did not provide an adequate solution to the issue ofHaredi conscription, as only 1,115 of the 41,450 yeshiva students covered by the arrangement had taken the "decision year" provided by the law, and of these, only 31 had later enlisted in theIsrael Defense Forces (IDF).[6] In 2007, the Tal Law was extended until August 2012. In January 2012, Ehud Barak, serving as Defense Minister, said his ministry was preparing an alternative to the Tal Law. Dozens of IDF reserve soldiers had put up what they called "the suckers' camp" near theTel Aviv Savidor Central railway station, to protest the possible extension of the Tal Law. Several politicians, public figures, disabled IDF veterans, and high school and university students visited the protest encampment.[7]
In February 2012, the High Court of Justice ruled that the Tal Law in its current form was unconstitutional, and could not be extended beyond August.[8] Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu said that the government would formulate a new bill that would guarantee a more equal sharing of the burden by all parts of Israeli society.[9] The issue was also part of a possible government collapse leading into the2012-2013 election. In light of these events, in November 2012 Jerusalem Faction founderShmuel Auerbach issued a memorandum to all yeshiva students asking them to refrain from reporting to therecruitment office until further notice, even if the purpose was only to receive a medical exam.[10]
The attitude of the Haredi community towards the outside world had historically been guided by the opinions of itsgedolim (lit. 'great ones', rabbinical leaders) who, through theirDa'as Torah, were able to create consensus. The death ofYosef Shalom Elyashiv in the critical year of 2012 created a power struggle among his successors,Aharon Leib Shteinman and Shmuel Auerbach, surrounding the draft controversy, with the former taking a more moderate approach, while the latter took a harder stance. In the end, Shteinman's leadership prevailed, which led to Auerbach's founding of the Jerusalem Faction as a protest movement.[11] Following the death of founder Shmuel Auerbach on 24 February 2018, a group of twelve rabbis calling themselves Council of Sages of the Torah World convened in Auerbach's former home to plan the future of the Jerusalem Faction. In particular, two disciples ofDegel HaTorah party founderElazar Shach,dayan Tzvi Friedman ofBnei Brak and Baruch Shmuel Deutsch ofKol Torah yeshiva, appeared to have assumed joint decision-making responsibilities for the group. Yisrael Yitzchak Kalmanovitz andEzriel Auerbach (brother of Shmuel) serve as ideological leaders.[12]
The Jerusalem Faction runs a political party,Bnei Torah [he] (call letters inHebrew:עץ,romanized: Etz). The party claims to be the political heir of Elazar Shach, whose Degel HaTorah party had in their view been compromised from its original principles. While the Faction also has a focus on threats to the Haredi education system, it mainly concerns itself with fomenting a strong opposition to the draft, which it deems a major threat to young Haredi men and women. The Faction created a Committee for Saving the Torah World to co-ordinate these activities,[12] seeking to prevent any erosion of the status quo.[13] In 2017, they reportedly represented 6.5% of the Haredi population.[11]
Haim Epstein [he] is a member of theJerusalem city council on the Jerusalem Faction ticket.[13] He ran forMayor of Jerusalem in the2018 election, but later withdrew.[2] He ran again in the2024 election.
The Jerusalem Faction's official organ,Hapeles (lit. 'The Leveler'), was started by formerYated Ne'eman staff who were terminated for espousing views that were not in keeping with the newspaper's moderate editorial policies.[12] The Faction's views are expressed editorially in the English language in aBrooklyn, New York, periodical calledLehovin (lit. 'To Understand').[14][better source needed]
In October 2017,Chaim Kanievsky issued a statement describing the Jerusalem Faction as "empty and reckless", and "like a flock without a shepherd".[11]
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