JERUSALEM: Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox demonstrated across Israel on Monday, blocking roads and trains and setting cars on fire to protest mandatory enlistment in Israel’s military.
Israel’s police said demonstrators blocked major intersections and attacked a soldier who disembarked from a bus near a protest. Police struggled to control the crowds with water cannons and horses.
The protest largely crippled the country’s center, with highways closed and public transportation halted by the massive crowds in both Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv metro area.
Military service is compulsory for most Jewish men and women in Israel. The politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties have won exemptions for their followers to forgo military service and instead study in religious seminaries, but those exemptions are under threat.
Many Israelis are tired of the longstanding system that has allowed ultra-Orthodox men to skip military service at a time when the military is stretched to its breaking point and many have served multiple tours of reserve duty. The issue is tearing apart Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, possibly moving elections up by several weeks this fall after the ultra-Orthodox parties withdrew their support for Netanyahu.
