Protesters from the Haredi Jerusalem Faction blocked Highway 4 on Sunday afternoon at three locations in the Bnei Brak area, protesting the arrest of draft evaders. Netivei Israel said the road was closed to northbound traffic at the Aluf Sadeh interchange and southbound at the Em HaMoshavot interchange.
Demonstrators who broke onto the roadway sat on the pavement, and police were documented dragging them away. Clashes were reported between protesters and officers working to clear the road and reopen traffic, though police were, for the time being, allowing the protest to continue.
Protesters block Highway 4
(Video: Roi Rubinstein)
The protesters called for the release of the detainees, whom they described as “hostages,” and held signs opposing enlistment targets, including: “50%, have you gone mad? The draft law equals consent to genocide.” Police arrested two people and detained another at the scene. During the arrests, protesters shouted “Nukhbas” at officers. Others chanted “We will die rather than be drafted,” as well as, “Enlistment in the secular army is worse than death.”
Another sign targeted Shas chairman Aryeh Deri: “Even if you forgot the Sephardi yeshiva students, the public has not forgotten them. Our children’s souls will not be abandoned to politicians.” Chants were also heard against political parties: “Shas and Degel HaTorah will find themselves below the electoral threshold.”
Heavy traffic congestion built up in the area, and additional congestion and closures were possible along Jabotinsky Road from Bnei Brak to Petah Tikva. Police said disorderly conduct was blocking the road in an illegal protest and that officers on site were directing traffic. “The Israel Police views the right to protest as a cornerstone of a democratic state and allows demonstrations as long as they are conducted within the law,” the statement said. “However, we will not allow disturbances of the peace, harm to freedom of movement, or any behavior that could endanger public safety.”
Earlier, Highway 4 was blocked northbound near Ashdod due to an ultra-Orthodox protest. The demonstrations took place as the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee was simultaneously discussing the draft exemption bill proposed by committee chairman Boaz Bismuth.
Deputy attorneys general determined that the “Bismuth framework” under discussion not only fails to advance enlistment but contains a negative incentive to enlist and entrenches, over the long term, inequality between those who serve and those who do not. If passed, the proposal would grant immediate exemptions to more than 95% of ultra-Orthodox men subject to conscription.
The opinion follows a legal assessment published this month by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, which found that a draft exemption law is unconstitutional and serves only the needs of yeshivas.
According to the deputies, the bill rolls back tools currently available to the government and the military, including personal sanctions, compared with the existing legal situation, at a time when the army’s needs are acute. The bill’s provision that a specific group would be subject to “community” conscription obligations, rather than an individual obligation applied to all young people, constitutes in itself a substantial deviation from the principle of equality and a preference for a particular group.