Haredim block main Bnei Brak road in anti-draft protest
Over 2,000 hardline ultra-Orthodox men block Jabotinsky Street, a main thoroughfare in the city; try to block Highway 4 but stopped by police; the Jerusalem Faction is protesting the imprisonment of yeshiva students refusing to enlist in IDF.
One of the protesters, 24, suffered minor wounds and was taken to the Ichilov Hospital at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center for treatment. By early evening, a total of fifteen people had received medical attention.
Protesters then tried to block Highway 4 in the Bnei Brak area, but police greeted them with mounted officers and water hoses.
Members of the Jerusalem Faction, which is led by Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, were called to gather at 2:30pm to protest the imprisonment of yeshiva students who refused to enlist in the army and are considered by the IDF to be deserters.
They were ordered by Auerbach to "shake the whole wide world in the struggle for the honor of the Torah."
The protest began on HaKhalutzim Street, only 500 meters away from the Geha Interchange on Highway 4. Some protesters were especially bussed in from across the country.
Multiple police forces, reinforced by Yasam (special patrol units), Border Police and mounted officers, deployed over the demonstration's area and adjacent streets in order to prevent blocking one of great Tel Aviv's main thoroughfares.
Road blocks were put up on HaKhalutzim Street to prevent protesters accessing the Geha Interchange and Jabotinsky Street. Some demonstrators attempted to run towards Highway 4, but were stopped from doing so.
Simultaneous protests were also held in Jerusalem's Rashi Street when Haredi demonstrators tried blocking the road to the local recruitment office. Five were arrested.
Mass demonstrations were held Sunday in two major areas: Bnei Brak and Jerusalem, the latter of which became violent and warranted arrests to be made.
Protesters in Bnei Brak Sunday were dispersed by force using mounted police officers and water hoses. Some of the Haredi protesters shouted Nazi epithets at the cops. In Jerusalem, meanwhile, junctions and roads were blocked. 28 protesters were arrested in Bnei Brak and 13 others in Jerusalem.
The Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach-led Jerusalem Faction were hoping relative calm over the past few weeks will bring about the speedy release of several young Haredi men who refused to arrive to recruitment offices, even if merely to request their deferment as yeshiva students. The Jaffa military tribunal, however, sentenced them to relatively long periods of incarceration, and Auerbach thus decided to send his thousands of followers to protest in the streets.
The Committee to Save the World of Torah, which organizes the protests, said, "The Israeli government must come to grips with the fact the country's Haredi public does not participate in the world of Torah's fire sale, as carried out by its representatives. The world of Torah will continue shaking to the world to its very core until the full status quo is returned, and there are no conditions or recruitment goals in exchange for not recruiting yeshiva students."
Current law stipulates that Haredi yeshiva students are exempt from army service. While the law was struck down by the High Court of Justice, it is still considered to be binding.
The Jerusalem Lithuanian faction—spearheading the protest—is fighting against the students' arriving at recruitment offices, despite the fact that is merely done to regulate their special standing.
The faction's leader, Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, has been instructing his disciples to ignore the army's summons. According to Auerbach, the army is taking advantage of their arrival to the recruitment offices to try and convince them to join in special Haredi service tracks, in order to meet conscription quotas mandated by law.
Regardless of the veracity of these claims, Auerbach's students who do not come to recruitment offices when summed are deemed defectors. Every time such defectors were arrested by military police demonstrations have sparked up again.
