Haredi Protesters Block Gannot Junction and Ben Shemen Interchange Over Arrested Draft Evaders

Haredim from the extremist factions are blocking several roads in central Israel today, Thursday, in protest against the draft law and the arrest of draft evaders. Highway 4 was blocked at Gannot Interchange, Gaha Interchange and Aluf Sade Interchange, and Highway 6 was blocked at Ben Shemen Interchange. Additional protesters are on their way to the scene, but they are still stuck in traffic because of the heavy congestion.

The Jerusalem Faction said, "As we warned in advance, in these minutes the main transportation arteries of Gush Dan and central Israel have been blocked by thousands of Torah scholars and God-fearing Jews, who came out in a tremendous cry of protest over the desecration and humiliation of the honor of Torah in the Land of Israel, and over the throwing of dozens of Torah students behind bars like the worst criminals."

The protests today mark an escalation, after 19 draft evaders who took part in the rioting outside the home of the deputy president of the Supreme Court, Justice Noam Sohlberg, were handed over to the military police last night.

The full blockade map

The Jerusalem Faction said yesterday that "[the police] have in effect declared a serious escalation in the obsessive persecution that state authorities are carrying out against Torah students. Tomorrow we will all go out to a determined and uncompromising struggle for the honor of Torah and its students, with a clear cry that will be heard throughout the country: To prison, and not to the army!"

Protests were also held yesterday outside Nitzan Prison in Ramla, the Russian Compound detention facility in Jerusalem, Hadarim Prison near Highway 4, and Abu Kabir Prison.

The Jerusalem Faction, an extremist group within the Haredi-Lithuanian stream that organizes many protests against the conscription of yeshiva students, organized the protest in an attempt to prevent the handover. The extremist Edah HaHaredit faction later joined the protests as well: "It is חובה to go out in protests in a ruthless war with self-sacrifice at the gates of the various prisons across the country in order to stop the destroyer."

More on this topic: Haredi protesters tried to break into a Jerusalem police station following the arrest of a Haredi demonstrator; dozens protested at the Tunnels Checkpoint.