Suspected draft-dodger falls off roof while fleeing Military Police

A young man was hospitalized in moderate to serious condition overnight Tuesday in Beit Shemesh after falling from a roof while fleeing the Military Police, according to the Kikar Hashabat ultra-Orthodox news site.

Paramedics were called to Aryeh Levin Street in the city, which lies southwest of Jerusalem, following reports that the man, suspected of being an IDF draft-dodger, had jumped from a rooftop while being pursued by the soldiers.

A medic at the scene said “the young man was suffering from bruises and injuries to the head and limbs.”

According to eyewitnesses, he added, the wounded man “fell from a roof onto a stone fence, which caused his serious wounds and bruises.”

Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, particularly in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, have seen multiple demonstrations in recent months against IDF conscription, in which radical Haredi protesters from the so-called extreme “Jerusalem Faction” have blocked main roads and scuffled with police, leading to scores of arrests.

Protests have been staged with increasing frequency since the High Court of Justice struck down a law earlier this year that effectively exempted ultra-Orthodox men engaged in religious study from military service, saying the law undermined the principle of equality before the law.

The decision, which intensified anger among members of the fringe sect, raises the possibility that they could be forced into service, a highly contentious proposition with dramatic political and social implications. However, the court suspended its decision for a year to allow for a new arrangement to be put in place, giving the government the option to pass a new law.

Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox youths from the faction took to the streets of Jerusalem on Sunday, causing traffic mayhem and shutting down the capital’s light rail service to protest the jailing of young seminary students for draft-dodging. The demonstrators blocked the main entrance to the capital for three hours.

Police used force to try and disperse the protesters, some of whom clashed with angry motorists and resisted attempts by officers to remove them. They also used water cannons and a foul-smelling skunk spray.

The group’s actions have, in the past, solicited condemnation from Israel’s leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for incitement to violence against IDF soldiers.

In May, for example, ultra-Orthodox demonstrators set fire to an effigy of an Israeli soldier in the ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea She’arim, to cheers and claps from the audience. A video of the display broadcast in Hebrew-language media showed a man holding a life-sized puppet-like model of a soldier over a bonfire with a long stick. Hours later, Netanyahu slammed what he described as a “despicable act.”