Ultra-Orthodox protesters block roads over draft-dodger arrest

Dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews blocked roads in several locations around the country Sunday night to protest the arrest of a draft-dodging yeshiva student.

Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, the leader of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community in Jerusalem, called on his followers to take to the streets to demonstrate against the arrest of Avraham Stern, a student in the Kamenitz Yeshiva, and against the draft, according to the ultra-Orthodox news site Kikar Shabbat.

Police asked drivers to avoid the Kahanman Interchange adjacent to the predominantly ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak due to protests, as well as the southbound lane of Highway 4 near the Yavne interchange, which the police struggled to keep open.

Police cars were trapped by demonstrators in Bar Ilan and Shmuel Hanavi Streets in Jerusalem, as dozens of men gathered to protest, holding signs against the army draft:

In Beit Shemesh, ultra-Orthodox demonstrators closed Nahal Hayarden Street. Meanwhile, near the city of Modiin, they attempted to block traffic at the Shilat interchange, but were pushed back by officers in the police’s Special Patrol Unit.

Many in the ultra-Orthodox community shun the mandatory military service that applies to most Israelis, and the community has historically enjoyed blanket exemptions in favor of religious seminary studies. However, a group of ultra-Orthodox, followers of Auerbach refuse to even appear at the recruiting office to request such exemptions.

On Saturday night demonstrators filled the main intersection in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Meah Shearim neighborhood, overturning garbage cans and attempting to stop the flow of traffic.

Police have sporadically detained ultra-Orthodox draft-dodgers in the past year, sparking demonstrations that have at times turned violent.

In July, protesters gathered outside the recruitment office on Rashi Street in Jerusalem and some threw rocks at police or tried to block the road. Three demonstrators were detained.

Reforms passed in the Knesset in 2014 that sought to do away with the exemptions and gradually increase ultra-Orthodox recruitment have met fierce opposition from many in the religious community, who perceive the army as a threat to their way of life.

In late November, the Knesset approved an amendment to the Equal Service Law, dramatically rolling back 2014 reforms and scrapping collective penalties to be imposed if annual quotas for ultra-Orthodox draftees were not met.