Mass ultra-Orthodox protests block roads, halt traffic over arrest of draft dodgers

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox men took to the streets across Israel on Monday, blocking roads in cities from the north of the country to the south and bringing traffic to a standstill to protest the recent arrest of Haredi yeshiva students who evaded conscription to the military.

The demonstrations descended into violence at several locations after the Israel Police declared the protests to be illegal and deployed officers to break them up. One officer was lightly injured during those efforts. In Jerusalem, a uniformed soldier had to be rescued by police officers after he got off a bus and found himself surrounded by Haredi rioters.

Separately, a protester was hit by a motorcyclist and seriously injured at the scene of the demonstration along the Route 4 highway. The Magen David Adom emergency services said the protester was evacuated to Sheba Medical Center in serious condition, conscious and suffering from head and limb injuries.

The extremist Jerusalem Faction movement announced the protests on Monday morning, saying they would organize against the “continued criminal detention” of yeshiva students, who they said were being arrested simply for “the ‘crime’ of Torah study.”

The group, numbering some 60,000 members, regularly holds rowdy demonstrations against the military enlistment of yeshiva students and operates a “national alert system” to mobilize wildcat street action when someone spots a draft dodger being arrested.

The largest demonstrations were held around the Ganot Interchange on the major Route 4 highway, and at the entrance to Jerusalem. Additional demonstrations were staged in Bnei Brak, at the entrance to Safed in northern Israel and in Netivot, in the south.

Familiar chants of “We will die and not enlist!” could be heard in footage from the various demonstrations.

Several other hotspots flared in Jerusalem throughout the evening, including outside the home of the Israel Police Traffic Department chief, Haim Shmueli, in Pisgat Ze’ev.

A separate group broke into the police station in the city’s Har Hotzvim neighborhood, footage showed.

ראשוני מפגיני העדה החרדית פורצים לתחנת המשטרה בהר חוצבים pic.twitter.com/56gij4IeZL

— יאיר לוי (@Yair__Levy) June 1, 2026

The protesters targeting Shmueli claimed, according to Channel 12, that his police department would pull drivers over for purported traffic violations only to hand them over to the Military Police if they were found to be evading conscription.

Two protesters were arrested outside Shmueli’s home, according to Ynet, after police used stun grenades to forcibly disperse the demonstration.

Traffic ground to a complete standstill along the affected portion of Route 4, as Haredi men and teens poured into the road, sitting in front of vehicles and resisting efforts to remove them. Similar scenes were observed at the entrance to Jerusalem, forcing the redirection of traffic heading out of the capital and causing further delays.

Train service throughout central Israel and in the Jerusalem area was halted after protesters broke onto the railway tracks near the Ganot Interchange, forcing a train en route to Jerusalem to reverse back to Tel Aviv. Among the impacted stations was Ben Gurion Airport, with the Walla news site reporting that some passengers were expected to miss their flights due to the extent of the disruptions.

The Jerusalem light rail was also brought to a standstill by protesters sitting on the tracks.

The Jerusalem Faction initially called for the protests to be held on Sunday but pushed them off at the last minute, claiming that negotiations with the Israel Defense Forces on releasing detained draft dodgers were beginning to bear fruit.

The IDF denied that claim, however, telling The Times of Israel on Sunday that it was holding no such talks on releasing draft dodgers from prison.

According to the Jerusalem Faction, six yeshiva students were arrested for draft evasion on Friday, three of whom were later freed, while the authorities attempted to arrest a seventh.

While the military and police have made no move to arrest all 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18-24 believed to be eligible for service, the detainment of even a small number of draft evaders has ignited anger and occasionally violence in Haredi enclaves.

Tensions also flared overnight Sunday after a draft dodger was arrested in Beit Shemesh in the evening, leading dozens of Haredi protesters to break into a police station in the city.

The protesters threw stones, attempted to block a main highway, and attempted to set fire to nearby brush before police regained control over the situation. Eight people were arrested on suspicion of rioting and assaulting police officers.

Over the past two years, the military has sent out tens of thousands of enlistment orders to members of the ultra-Orthodox community whose exemptions from mandatory service in the IDF were revoked under the 2024 High Court ruling. Most have ignored the orders, leading to large numbers of young men being classified as evaders and being subject to arrest or other sanctions.

In April, the High Court of Justice ordered the government to adopt economic sanctions against ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers and called on the state to take “actual criminal proceedings” against them, saying it was issuing the orders because the government had failed to implement a previous ruling from November 2025 to adopt enforcement measures against ultra-Orthodox men who have failed to enlist in the IDF after being sent conscription orders.

The IDF recently warned of a steadily worsening shortage of combat soldiers in the standing military, high burnout among troops, and fears that the reserve army could “collapse” if necessary legislation is not advanced by the government.