Clashes broke out in Jerusalem on Thursday following a mass ultra-Orthodox rally against military conscription, after a man fell to his death from a high-rise construction site near the protest area.
Police said the man, identified as 20-year-old Menachem Mendel Litzman, fell from the “Marom Tower,” a building under construction that is expected to become Jerusalem’s tallest, with 40 floors. Emergency responders pronounced him dead at the scene on Shazar Boulevard after finding him with multiple injuries. Authorities said they were investigating whether the fall was intentional.
(Video: Liran Tamari, Idan Bleomhof)
Videos from the rally showed some participants climbing onto rooftops, cranes, billboards, and even the roof of a gas station. After the fall, organizers used loudspeakers to warn demonstrators to come down, citing “danger to life.”
Tensions escalated shortly afterward, with police and protesters clashing near the construction site. Officers were pelted with stones and bottles, and one officer was seen drawing his firearm in the air as he assisted a colleague who had been injured. Three officers were hurt in the confrontations, including a district deputy commander who was struck by an object, police said.
The Fire and Rescue Service reported that several people climbed onto a crane and refused to come down. Firefighters were called in at the police’s request to secure the site and assist if needed.
According to organizers, the rally drew an estimated 200,000 participants to Jerusalem’s entrance. Many arrived in organized buses and trains to protest efforts to draft ultra-Orthodox men into the Israel Defense Forces.
The demonstration ended quietly, without music, following the fatal fall. Protesters dispersed carrying signs reading “Israel is Stalin” and “We’re not afraid of arrests, only of quotas.” Others held posters of Ariel Shamai, a yeshiva student currently jailed for refusing to report for military service.