Haredim block traffic at south Jerusalem checkpoint after arrest of suspected rioter
26-year-old, who allegedly resisted arrest, is one of 65 detained for attack on home of Supreme Court justice who has ordered effective penalties against draft dodgers
Dozens of Haredi men blocked traffic at a security checkpoint between the West Bank and south Jerusalem on Sunday following the arrest of a suspected participant in the Wednesday night attack on the home of Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg.
The 26-year-old Beit Shemesh resident, one of 65 suspected rioters detained thus far, was nabbed while driving in the West Bank near the large Haredi settlement of Beitar Illit.
The suspect tried to lock himself in his car after police stopped him on the road, but officers broke into the vehicle and apprehended him, police said, adding that he would be brought to court for an extension of his remand.
Soon after the arrest, dozens of Haredim burst onto the road and brought traffic to a standstill at the Tunnels Checkpoint, not far from where police had detained the suspect.
Police said the protesters blocked vehicles, hauled boulders onto the road and lit fires.
Officers managed to disperse the protest after roughly an hour, according to police. No arrests were reported.
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Rioters had shattered windows and vandalized property outside Sohlberg’s house, in the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut, in protest of the Supreme Court’s demand that the government do more to draft ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.
Sohlberg and his wife were home at the time, and an initial police probe reportedly found that the rioters sought to physically harm the judge.
Of the suspected rioters arrested so far, 62 have been brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for an extension of their remand.
According to a lawyer for some of the detainees, a total of 58 suspects were still in custody as of Sunday morning.
Eighteen suspects were released to house arrest Thursday evening on the order of a judge, but police successfully appealed the decision Friday, and the 18 suspects were held in custody over the weekend.
On Friday night, ultra-Orthodox extremists protesting the suspects’ continued detention tried to break into a Jerusalem police station. Similar riots broke out in Beit Shemesh, where rioters threw stones at officers.
Five minors detained Wednesday night were set to go free Friday, but their status is unclear.
Sohlberg, the deputy chief justice of the Supreme Court, often hears petitions demanding Haredi enlistment, and wrote a November 2025 ruling that the government must impose effective enforcement measures and criminal penalties on ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who fail to enlist.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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