From the Liveblog of
Monday, June 1, 2026
Extremist Haredi group announces demonstrations across the country today
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
The Jerusalem Faction, an extremist ultra-Orthodox group that regularly holds rowdy protests against the military enlistment of yeshiva students, announces that it will hold “a series of stormy demonstrations across the country,” including in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak and Netivot, this afternoon.
“Due to the continued, criminal detention” of yeshiva students “for the ‘crime’ of Torah study,” demonstrations will be held at 5 p.m. in order to “protest against the severe harm done to the Torah world and to the right of yeshiva students and kollel scholars to continue diligently pursuing their studies without fear,” the group says in a statement.
The Jerusalem demonstration will be held at the entrance to the city.
The protests were originally slated to be held on Sunday afternoon but were postponed after the group claimed that negotiations with the IDF “regarding the release of a large number of yeshiva students … from military prison” were beginning to bear fruit. The IDF denied the Jerusalem Faction’s statement on Sunday, telling The Times of Israel that “contrary to what is being claimed, there are no negotiations taking place regarding the release of deserters and draft evaders from military prison.”
The Times of Israel Community.