Haredi protesters block entrance to Jerusalem, roads elsewhere to protest arrest of draft-dodgers

Cars and public buses came to a complete standstill at the entrance to Jerusalem Wednesday evening as hundreds of Haredi demonstrators blocked roads nationwide, protesting the arrest of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers a day prior.

The demonstrations were organized by the radical ultra-Orthodox “Jerusalem Faction,” which stridently opposes conscription of yeshiva students. Protesters in Jerusalem halted traffic leading into the capital for over two hours.

Similar protests also caused disruptions on Route 4 near Bnei Brak, the Shilat Junction by Modi’in and in Beit Shemesh and Petah Tikva.

Under Jerusalem’s Chords Bridge, the protesters — the vast majority of them Haredi males, chanted the popular slogan “We will die rather than enlist” and held up signs against military conscription.

Grinning adolescent boys sat in the middle of the street gripping posters that read, “I will also go proudly to jail, rather than the army.” One bearded man on the sidewalk held a sign he made himself, reading: “Bandits, stop kidnapping Israel’s young men!”

The nationwide protest was sparked by the arrest of three Haredi draft dodgers Tuesday morning.

The three were detained protesting against a construction project in Yehud planned on top of archaeological remains said to be an ancient Jewish cemetery. They were transferred to the Military Police for questioning after law enforcement determined they evaded conscription.

During the demonstrations Wednesday, police initially tried to forcefully wrangle control over the Jerusalem protest. Some officers were filmed punching, kicking and even trampling demonstrators sitting on the road under Chords Bridge.

Police chief Danny Levy later ordered that law enforcement look into the documented violence against demonstrators.

מחאת הפלג בירושלים: שוטרים דורכים על ראשם וגופם של מפגינים שיושבים על הכביש pic.twitter.com/shYfzMh8qp

— לירן תמרי | Liran Tamari (@liran__tamari) July 23, 2025

Some demonstrators also roughed up police, law enforcement said in a statement, claiming officers were met with violence upon declaring the protest illegal. Protesters reportedly threw water bottles at cops and refused to heed their orders.

A protester told The Times of Israel that the demonstration was sparked by Tuesday’s arrests, but was also meant to “demonstrate power” amid growing calls to draft Haredim to the military.

No known arrests were made in Jerusalem. Police did not respond to a request for comment regarding the number of arrests in total.

Police eventually stood down, rather than attempt to disperse the unruly crowd. Officers huddled near a traffic island as protesters enjoyed free reign for an hour or so. Some teens climbed a highway sign, while others argued with and insulted passersby.

An Orthodox woman who passed by a group of demonstrators shouted “shame on you!” An elderly demonstrator yelled back, calling her a “shiksa” — a pejorative term for a non-Jewish woman.

At one point, a car made inroads into the crowd, with protesters quickly gathering around the vehicle and banging on its windshields.

The driver was an Arab bus driver who was among the motorists getting out of their vehicles amid the congestion. He said he was trying to help the car’s owner, a Jewish woman who was sitting in the passenger’s seat as he drove, get through the traffic.

Protesters stopped the car in its tracks, and began to follow the driver when he exited the vehicle. They accused him of trying to carry out a car ramming attack, calling him a “terrorist” and telling him to “go to Gaza.” Police separated the protesters from the bus driver.

Haredi anti-draft demonstrators in Jerusalem surround an Arab bus driver, accuse him of trying to ram protesters on July 23, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Soon after 7 p.m. the Jerusalem Faction declared an end to the demonstrations in Jerusalem and elsewhere, but some stragglers continued to attempt to block traffic as Border Police officers pushed them back onto the sidewalk. The protest eventually fizzled out entirely.

Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers meanwhile raged at police over the arrest of the three draft-dodgers.

United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf told Defense Minister Israel Katz that he was “shocked” to hear about the arrests.

He called on Katz to work to release the three detainees. “I am asking you to work with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring an end to the painful and unnecessary saga we are experiencing, and to promptly fulfill your commitment to regulate through legislation the status of Torah scholars,” he was quoted as saying by Haaretz.

Goldknopf was referring to Haredi parties’ efforts to pass legislation that would enshrine sweeping exemptions from mandatory military service for ultra-Orthodox men. The two Haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, bolted the government this month over the refusal of MK Yuli Edelstein, who until recently chaired the influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, to advance the draft exemption bill.

Edelstein was ousted from his position Wednesday by Netanyahu and his fellow Likud party members, in what was seen largely as a bid to repair the premier’s relations with the ultra-Orthodox parties after they left the government.