Women Protesters Block Entry to Bnei Brak in Anti-Draft Counterdemonstration

Women from the Mothers on the Front movement, joined by other protesters, blocked the Coca-Cola Bridge, the main entrance to Bnei Brak from Route 4, on Friday afternoon, causing traffic jams in the area. Organizers said the action was retaliation for transport disruptions caused by Haredi protests on Wednesday against efforts to draft yeshiva students and against arrests of draft evaders.

The protest drew a large crowd of local residents, some of whom shouted, "We will die and not enlist." The scene escalated into clashes between the protesters and Haredim, including shoving, and one woman removed her shirt in protest. Police at the site tried to separate the groups.

Mothers on the Front founder and leader Attorney Ayelet Hashachar Seydof told ynet that Israel had sent its children to defend the country while some were killed or wounded, only to face "a country of draft dodgers." She said, "We came here today to say enough." Ilai Hershgor-Handin, head of the Free Seculars, backed the protest, saying Haredi leaders had "stretched the rope too far" and that "Bnei Brak is no different from Kfar Yona and Tel Aviv." He added, "Blockades will be met with blockades" and called the situation "just the beginning."

Bnei Brak city council member Yaakov Vider of Likud condemned the roadblocks as criminal and anarchic behavior that harms hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens. He urged law enforcement to protect the public.

The counterprotest followed a major Haredi demonstration on Wednesday led by United Torah Judaism chairman MK Yitzchak Goldknopf, which included car convoys at 19 locations nationwide and caused severe traffic disruptions. Seydof had said on ynet the day before that the Haredi protests were "riots, not demonstrations" and warned that Friday's action would block Bnei Brak before Sabbath and disrupt daily life.