Mass Protest Over Draft Arrests Halts Traffic and Echoes at Prison Gates

A major ultra-Orthodox protest dubbed the “car protest” brought large parts of Israel to a standstill and, according to the article, achieved its aim within half an hour. It dominated the news cycle, sent frightened civilians home from work, emptied offices across the country, and was meant to send a message that yeshiva students would not be harmed or jailed for studying Torah.

The demonstration drew a rare display of unity across the Haredi spectrum, with Hasidic factions aligned with Agudat Yisrael, Lithuanian leaders following the instruction of Rabbi Dov Lando, and the Jerusalem Faction and Sephardi circles acting under Rabbi Moshe Maya, which also led Shas lawmakers to join. Massive traffic jams were reported at all protest sites, afternoon prayers were held in the middle of roads, and the article says secular drivers used severe violence against the Haredi protesters, who declared, “Enough.”

Police reinforced the area around Prison 10 and blocked thousands of demonstrators from reaching the prison walls. In response, leading rabbis used powerful loudspeakers, installed in advance by the organizing committee, to broadcast protest speeches and songs directly toward the prison and its surroundings, intending both to protest at the “scene of the crime” and to strengthen the detained men.

Among those heard were Rabbi Meir Tzvi Bergman, who said, “Fortunate are you, seized for words of Torah,” and Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, who urged the authorities to “remove your hands from Torah scholars” and especially from Sephardi students. Rabbi Shmuel Batsalel, Rabbi Yaakov Meir Shechter, Rabbi Moshe Berzovsky, and Rabbi Yitzchak Moshe Erlanger also delivered messages of encouragement, comparing the detainees to religious martyrs and invoking Rabbi Akiva. The names of all the detainees and their mothers were recited in prayer, including the jailed yeshiva student and father of two toddlers, Amram Markovitz, who reportedly fainted and lost consciousness in prison.