Thousands of ultra-Orthodox men gather outside Beit Lid military prison to protest arrest of draft evaders

Thousands of Haredi demonstrators gather outside the IDF’s Beit Lid military prison to protest the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox draft evader being held at the facility.

Amid fears of masses breaking into the Beit Lid base, which houses the Neve Tzedek prison and military courts, the IDF has deployed Military Police soldiers to the area and put additional troops at a nearby base on standby in case additional forces are required.

The bulk of demonstrators are affiliated with the Gur dynasty, the largest Hasidic sect in Israel.

The protest takes place after Gur’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, called for a demonstration to be held during his visit to the prison, in solidarity with a jailed draft evader who belongs to the sect.

Yitzhak Goldknopf, the head of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, is also at the scene of the protest. He is recorded reciting psalms at a podium before the demonstrators.

גולדקנופף משתתף במחאה של חסידות גור סמוך לבית ליד, ומקריא פרקי תהילים

עדכונים מהמחאה והעומס בכבישים | https://t.co/Zl9mfiIbm0 pic.twitter.com/4ZIzGphKe8

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) June 17, 2026

The head of a neighborhood committee in Kfar Yona, which lies just south of the jail, tells Ynet that life has become “impossible” in recent weeks as Haredi anti-draft protests ramp up across the country, particularly outside military prisons where evaders are held.

“We live in fear, there’s insane preparation going on all the time [ahead of Haredi protests] and it’s not pleasant,” committee head Mickey Gerbi tells the outlet.