Ultra-Orthodox Protest Against Draft Arrests Blocks Roads Near Beit Lid

Extremist ultra-Orthodox demonstrators are protesting on Wednesday outside Prison 10 at the Beit Lid base near Kfar Yona, after arrests of draft evaders. Police said Route 57 eastbound near Beit Lid Junction and the western approach from Kfar Yona were closed because of the rally.

The protest follows an earlier demonstration in the morning on Route 4 near Geha, where major clashes broke out between protesters and police. The confrontations included the use of mounted officers, batons and stun grenades. Police were filmed dragging demonstrators along the road and tearing their trousers.

Ultra-Orthodox Knesset members criticized the police response and urged National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to intervene. Ben Gvir said he would hold an "urgent discussion" on the issue.

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri sharply condemned Ben Gvir over the police violence caught on camera. "Itamar Ben Gvir, wake up," Deri said. "It is impossible that what the police did not do in Kaplan against anarchists who sought to destroy the state, it is doing now against citizens crying out that they have been turned into criminals just because they study Torah." Deri added that Ben Gvir had shown he knows how to deploy the police when it matters to him, and called on him to stop the violence against "sons of Torah."