Haredi minister’s car attacked as violence erupts at anti-draft protest in Jerusalem
5 arrested during clashes with police, officer hospitalized; stones hurled at vehicles carrying United Torah Judaism party head Yitzhak Goldknopf and his predecessor Yaakov Litzman
Thousands of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators on Sunday protested in Jerusalem against the conscription of Haredi yeshiva students into the military, with some throwing rocks and clashing with police.
Five people were arrested in clashes, during which protesters also lit fires in the street and attacked the car of Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf.
The demonstrators mostly belonged to the extremist Jerusalem Faction, which numbers some 60,000 members and regularly demonstrates against the enlistment of yeshiva students.
Anger has boiled as the issue of ultra-Orthodox enlistment has returned to the government’s agenda against the background of the ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Haredim are angry at their own lawmakers who, as members of the coalition, backed a recent move to revive a bill from a previous parliament that would lower the age of exemption from mandatory service for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students from 26 to 21 and “very slowly” increase their rate of conscription.
Protesters on Sunday carried signs reading, “We will not enlist in the enemy army,” and “We will die and not enlist,” as they blocked an intersection that leads to a heavily ultra-Orthodox area in the capital.
Some protesters were seen in footage attacking a car carrying Goldknopf, who heads the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, as he drove home in Jerusalem.
According to Hebrew media reports, demonstrators threw stones at the minister’s car, beat the vehicle, and hurled insults as he passed by.
Police intervened after several minutes and evacuated him from the area.
משבר הגיוס: מפגינים חרדים תקפו את רכבו של השר גולדקנופף שהיה בדרכו לביתו@AkivaWeisz pic.twitter.com/x509Exq3D3
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) June 30, 2024
Not long after, former UTJ leader and minister Yaakov Litzman’s was also attacked as he encountered the protesters, who smashed the windshield of his car. He was similarly rescued by police, but later said his car was ruined.
כעת רכבו של ליצמן נופץ pic.twitter.com/gFgTA9rYLu
— Merav Sever (@meravseve) June 30, 2024
Police said in a statement that protesters also threw objects at officers and lit trash cans on fire.
According to police, several officers were injured, including a policewoman who was struck in the head by a thrown object and later taken to a hospital for treatment.
Officers used crowd dispersal methods to clear rioters from the streets, according to police.
Images showed a water cannon being deployed against demonstrators, and officers were seen shoving protesters.
מטחי אבנים בלתי פוסקים של מפגינים חרדים על כוחות מג״ב.
עימותים קשים במקום pic.twitter.com/OZmQKPTjdO— רוני גרין שאולוב – Roni Green Shaulov (@Ronigreensha) June 30, 2024
After nightfall, the crowd made its way toward central Jerusalem as it become increasingly violent.
Police deployed Skunk water cannons — filled with foul-smelling water — and mounted officers to disperse the crowd.
Two people were arrested on suspicion of assaulting officers and three for throwing rocks and objects.
Earlier, at the main rally at Shabbat Square, the head of the prominent Sephardi Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem slammed ultra-Orthodox lawmakers for voting for the bill.
“These fools want to make compromises? We are not the landlords of the Torah. Just like a servant doesn’t make compromises with the landlord, we will not compromise on the Torah,” said Rabbi Moshe Tzedaka.
Many ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that military service is incompatible with their way of life and fear that those who do enlist will be secularized.
The protest, one of many in recent months, comes in response to the High Court of Justice’s landmark ruling last week that ordered the military to begin conscripting ultra-Orthodox men and halt funding to yeshivas that do not comply.
The High Court’s decision means that after decades of political and societal controversy and strife over the issue, there is now a legal obligation for young Haredi men to join most of their Israeli peers and serve in the military.
This new reality has come about largely due to the confluence of two major events — the expiration of the original law allowing for blanket service exemptions, and the cataclysmic Hamas-led October 7 terror attack and its aftermath, which threw into sharp relief the IDF’s need for more manpower.
Although the government could in theory re-legislate the blanket exemptions, doing so would be politically difficult since several MKs in the ruling Likud party have indicated they will not vote for them and since the country is engaged in active fighting on numerous fronts.
AP contributed to this report.
