Highways reopen across central Israel after Haredi anti-draft protesters largely disperse

Haredi demonstrators blocking roads appear to have largely dispersed following more than two hours of protests, which brought traffic on three major highways in central Israel to a standstill.

Police say that Routes 1, 4 and 6 have been reopened to traffic. As the protests die down, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox men are seen walking along the shoulders of the highways.

Leaders of the hardline Jerusalem Faction movement, which called for the mass rallies, announce that the thousands of demonstrators “are receiving the order to disperse.”

The massive protests that began at 5 p.m. today were organized against the police’s transfer of 19 draft dodgers to IDF custody, after they were arrested last week during destructive riots outside Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg’s house.