Haredi demonstrators block Bnei Brak highway to protest conscription efforts

Ultra-Orthodox demonstrators block the Route 4 highway in Bnei Brak to protest efforts to conscript Haredi men into the military.

Protesters hand out fliers railing against enlistment to the military, and sing an anti-conscription song, the lyrics of which include the line, “If you go to the army, you and the dogs are equal.”

Demonstrators also carry signs reading, “Secularization is worse than death. We will die and not draft.”

Images show police forcibly removing protesters from the highway after police declare the demonstration illegal.

The demonstration comes a day after the Attorney General’s Office appealed to Defense Minister Israel Katz to advance sanctions on draft evaders with all “necessary urgency,” arguing that only a “negligible” fraction of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who were sent conscription orders have actually enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces.

Haredi leaders vehemently oppose members of the community serving in the military, fearing they will be secularized. The issue, long a sensitive one in Israeli public discourse due to the perceived inequality created by the blanket exemption, has taken on renewed urgency with the military contending with a severe manpower shortage since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

Haredi leaders vehemently oppose members of the community serving in the military, fearing they will be secularized. The issue, long a sensitive one in Israeli public discourse due to the perceived inequality created by the blanket exemption, has taken on renewed urgency as the military contends with a severe manpower shortage since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

מפגינים מהפלג התפרצו לכביש 4 וחסמו אותו לתנועה באיזור קוקה קולה במחאה נגד הגיוס pic.twitter.com/prUYEs0ua0

— שילה פריד???????? (@shilofreid) March 19, 2025

Sam Sokol contributed to this report.