Local residents plan to prevent Haredi protesters reaching military prison, mayor says

Residents of Kfar Yona are planning on physically blocking thousands of Haredi protesters from nearing the military prison for a demonstration in support of Haredi draft evaders being held there.

Haredim frequently protest outside the prison, with demonstrations sometimes escalating into clashes. This has angered local residents, who say that their quality of life has been disturbed.

Speaking with 103FM, Kfar Yona Mayor Albert Taib says that residents of the city will blockade the Givat Alonim neighborhood, where the prison is located, stating that a previous protest by members of United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf’s Gur Hasidic sect last week “left behind destruction that no words can describe,” destroying “traffic signs and protective iron bars that protect kindergartens.”

Demonstrators “relieved themselves right inside the yards of the houses,” he continues, stating that “what was left behind for us in the Givat Alonim neighborhood is something indescribable.”

“We will stand at the entrance, the city’s residents and I at their head. I estimate that the police will not allow them to enter the neighborhood,” Taib adds.

In further comments to Israel Hayom, Taib says that his objections are not about Haredim but the fact that whenever a soldier or evader is arrested, the city is “besieged” by protesters.

Speaking with the daily, one resident complains that “every demonstration in front of the prison turns our lives into a nightmare. We will block the entrance to the neighborhood and in addition, a convoy of vehicles will leave on our behalf to drive slowly through the neighborhood. We will not allow vehicles to enter the neighborhood.”

Asked if he believes that there will be violence, a spokesman for the protest told The Times of Israel yesterday that the demonstrators “don’t want violence” and hope that there won’t be any.