Four arrested at ultra-Orthodox draft protest

Four ultra-Orthodox protesters were arrested Sunday during a Jerusalem protest against IDF enlistment.

The four were arrested for public disturbances during the protest, police said. Officers were at the scene.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim to protest the arrest of ultra-Orthodox Israelis who neglected to report to the draft office.

Protesters pushed dumpsters into the intersection of a main thoroughfare running through the neighborhood, blocking traffic and causing gridlock in central Jerusalem, Ultra-Orthodox website Kikar Hashabbat reported.

Photos from the scene of the protest, in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood’s Sabbath Square, appeared to show burning dumpsters. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Sunday’s protests marked the second outburst over the issue in the past week, following demonstrations last Sunday and Monday around Jerusalem, Ashdod, Elad and the ultra-Orthodox Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak in which at least 46 were arrested.

Yeshiva students, who up until recently received an exemption from mandatory IDF service, are now conscripted into the military under a new draft law passed by the Knesset last year.

Under the new legislation, ultra-Orthodox men can be criminally charged and imprisoned for draft evasion.