Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

London, UK – 11 December 2025

Thousands of Strictly Orthodox Jews Protest Outside Israeli Embassy in London Against Forced Conscription and Persecution of Torah Students While the world welcomes the recent ceasefire in Gaza, several thousand strictly Orthodox (Haredi) Jews, led by prominent rabbinic leaders from the Satmar and allied communities, gathered today outside the Israeli Embassy in London to protest the State of Israel’s ongoing wars and its escalating persecution of Torah-observant Jewry.

The demonstrators demanded an immediate end to the forced military conscription of full-time yeshiva students – a policy they described as the most severe assault on Torah life in the history of the State.

Speaking to the crowd, Rabbi Halberstam declared:

“Gentlemen, what we are seeing in Israel is happening nowhere else in the world!

Yeshiva students go to sleep in fear, terrified that at any moment they will be dragged from their beds and snatched into the army.

We never saw anything like this – not even in the harshest oppressive regimes, not even in communist Russia, where we were used to persecution.

Kidnappings like these simply did not exist!”

Key points raised during the protest:

● The State of Israel has no religious legitimacy to compel Torah students to abandon their sacred studies and serve in its army to fight wars forbidden by the Torah.

● Israeli authorities are conducting raids in Orthodox neighbourhoods, harassing families, and arresting yeshiva students who refuse to comply with draft orders.

● These measures constitute a grave violation of freedom of religion and conscientious objection as protected under Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

● From its founding, the Zionist enterprise has opposed authentic Torah observance; the current mass conscription campaign represents the harshest step yet to forcibly secularise thousands of young Orthodox Jews.

At the conclusion of the demonstration, a declaration of solidarity with the persecuted Torah community in the Holy Land was read aloud.

The protest remained peaceful throughout.

SOURCE: Coalition of the orthodox jewish community of the UK

Contact:

Rabbi Berger

Email: vaadhapoel86@gmail.com