Mass protest in Jerusalem escalates – bus runs over people

“Violent unrest”

Mass protest in Jerusalem – bus runs over people

During a protest by ultra-Orthodox against military service in Jerusalem, several people are hit by a bus. The police speak of “violent unrest”.

According to Israeli police, a bus driver hit several participants with his vehicle during a mass protest by thousands of ultra-Orthodox against their recruitment in Israel. A young man was trapped under the bus and declared dead, reported the Magen David Adom emergency service. Accordingly, several people were also injured. According to police, the bus driver was arrested.

According to initial investigations, the incident occurred outside the area designated for the protest, the police said. There was regular traffic there. Demonstrators there tried to prevent the bus driver from continuing his journey. The driver reportedly said that the demonstrators had attacked him.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, around 15,000 people took part in the protest. Israeli police said some of them threw objects at police officers and set garbage cans on fire. It was also said that rioters also attacked journalists. The Israeli police are on duty to disperse the “violent unrest”.

Strictly religious men in Israel were exempt from military service for decades. However, this exemption expired around a year and a half ago. The Israeli government failed to pass a new law to cement this special status for the ultra-Orthodox.

Since then, there have been frequent large protests by strictly religious Jews against their recruitment. Many ultra-Orthodox feel military service is a threat to their pious lifestyle, in part because women and men serve together. A speaker at the demonstration compared conscription to the Holocaust, reported the Times of Israel and the Israeli news site ynet.

The army, on the other hand, has urgently warned of a drastic shortage of soldiers capable of fighting because of the long Gaza war. Many Israelis also feel it is unfair that ultra-Orthodox Jews are exempt from military service and dangerous combat missions.

The rally in Jerusalem was also directed against a new bill that would regulate the liberation of the ultra-Orthodox, but which some of them do not go far enough.

The dispute over compulsory military service for strictly religious men is also seen as a threat to the continued existence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing religious coalition.