Dozens of ultra-Orthodox protesters blocked Route 4 near the Geha Interchange by Bnei Brak on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m., protesting the arrest of a draft evader who had been sentenced to 14 days in prison. Police declared the demonstration illegal and dispersed the crowd with mounted officers, batons, and stun grenades. Officers were filmed dragging protesters along the road and tearing their pants.
The confrontation quickly turned political. Shas leader Aryeh Deri accused National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir of selective enforcement, saying, "What the police did not do at Kaplan against anarchists, they are doing now against citizens who are crying out because they study תורה." MK Yoav Ben Tzur said police were applying discriminatory enforcement, while MK Meir Porush called on the police commissioner and field commanders to resign, saying the violent dispersal resembled Turkey and Iran.
Ben Gvir, who oversees the police, announced an urgent meeting on the use of stun grenades. He said there had been growing cases in which the devices were used against civilians "not according to the procedures," and warned he would remove stun grenades from police use unless their use is restricted to exceptional cases. His current stance is a sharp reversal from March 2023, when he defended police using stun grenades against protesters in Tel Aviv and called for "zero tolerance" toward road blockages and chaos.
The article also notes that in 2023 Ben Gvir backed promoting officer Meir Suissa, who was filmed throwing a stun grenade toward Kaplan protesters. At that time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also gave full backing to Ben Gvir and the police for acting against lawbreakers disrupting daily life.
