The arrest of an ultra-Orthodox man who refused to enlist in the IDF sparked widespread protests throughout the country Thursday, as thousands of Haredi demonstrators demanded the young man’s immediate release from army prison and called on the government to reinstate payments to religious seminaries which were frozen earlier this week by Finance Minister Yair Lapid.
In Jerusalem, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators clashed with police forces on the light-rail suspension bridge near the entrance to the city. According to police, several protesters attempted to break through the police security buffer and throw bottles and firecrackers at security personnel and passersby. Fifteen demonstrators were arrested, police said. A number of main roads in the capital were blocked as a result of the protests, causing heavy traffic throughout the city.
“The Haredim [ultra-Orthodox Jews] will never enlist!” an enraged protester filmed by Channel Two News was heard saying.
“We’ve managed to overcome the inquisitions, we overcame Hitler, and we will now overcome the state,” he cried.
In the background, several demonstrates could be heard calling the policemen at the site Nazis.
The demonstrations were largely organized by a radical Lithuanian Haredi group known as “the Jerusalem branch,” Ynet reported.
About one hundred protesters clashed with police at the northern entrance to Ashdod, with twelve people arrested after allegedly attempting to assault a policeman. A police car was reported to have been set on fire by protesters as well.
Two demonstrators were treated on the spot for mild injuries.
Hundred of ultra-Orthodox protesters who attempted to block the main highway near Modiin were removed from the area by police. The protesters began praying along the highway shoulders, Walla reported.
Rabbi David Zicherman, one of the organizers of the Jerusalem protests, called on the ultra-Orthodox public to start a civil disobedience movement and stop paying taxes.
“You are pushing us into a corner,” he said of the government. “We will start a war with the State of Israel, and it will burn like wildfire. We, Holocaust survivors, are now encountering a spiritual Holocaust.”
“They will fail in their attempt to lead us to annihilation,” he warned. “We shall not compromise nor negotiate.”
Earlier this week, Lapid brought to a halt to state payments to religious seminaries that are attended by ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers hours before the cash was due to be paid out.
Lapid ordered the funding to be frozen right after a High Court ruling which determined that the state should stop making payments to seminaries as part of an ongoing effort to draft ultra-Orthodox men into national service.
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