Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Monday, April 1, 2024
Hundreds of extremist Haredim block Route 4 in protest against IDF conscription
Ultra-Orthodox Jews block a road and clash with police during a protest against the drafting of Haredim to the Israeli army, on Route 4, outside the city of Bnei Brak, April 1, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, protesters block the Route 4 highway in the center of the country during a demonstration against IDF conscription, Hebrew media reports.
The demonstrators belong to the extremist Jerusalem Faction, Ynet reports, which numbers some 60,000 members and regularly demonstrates against the enlistment of yeshiva students.
The protest comes on the same day that a High Court of Justice order comes into effect, freezing financial support for Haredi yeshivas with students who receive annual deferrals from military service, and as the Defense Ministry has been instructed to begin the process of drafting Haredi men.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.
