Ultra-Orthodox 'modesty patrol' clashes with police

Haredi men attack women for ‘dressing immodestly,’ then turn on law enforcement officers called to the scene

A group of ultra-Orthodox men attacked a police car in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Yisrael on Thursday, shattering its front and back windshields.

Police were called to the scene after the neighborhood’s so-called “modesty patrol” beset a car in which a group of ultra-Orthodox women were traveling, claiming that they were dressed immodestly.

Several ultra-Orthodox men broke the car’s windows, punctured its tires and poured fish oil on it.

After the attack on the police car, another group of police arrived and quelled the disturbance.

Informal “modesty patrols” have been known to operate in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and towns to enforce — sometimes violently — a strict reading of Jewish views on modesty and propriety.