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Hundreds of ultra-orthodox men and boys clashed with Israeli police on Thursday evening at a demonstration in Jerusalem against plans to end the community’s sweeping exemption from military service.
Thousands of men had arrived, many with young sons in tow, to say prayers and hear speeches under a banner reading “don’t touch the yeshivot (religious schools)”, down the street from a conscription office.
One rabbi involved in organising the event, Abraham Manks from the hard line Peleg Yerushalmi or Jerusalem faction, described it as “a gathering, not a protest”, a show of Haredi unity. It drew the biggest crowds seen at an ultra-orthodox rally since before the Covid pandemic, said analyst Israel Cohen.
But although the majority were peaceful, a few hundred metres from the main stage, outside the military building, rows of angry boys pushed against police lines, taunting officers, throwing drinks and sticks, and trying to attack them with protest placards.
Some of the youngest looked like they were under ten, and treated clashes with the police almost like a game, laughing as they tried to race past officers.
They carried signs and stickers reading “Either Haredi, or in the army,”. The community says young men who go to serve, alongside secular men and women, will loose the religious outlook that is the heart of life at the conservative communities, were the sexes are strictly segregated and smartphones banned.
“The message to Israeli society is that there is a large group of people who don’t want to serve in the army,” Manks said. “The fear is that we will loose our identity, and joining the army will mean loosing our identity.”
He said the meeting aimed to unite Haredis, and protest that a decision affecting over a million Israelis had been made by a court, not by the government.
