Demonstrators objected to the police response to arrests linked to draft enforcement.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Ultra-Orthodox protesters disrupted traffic across Israel on Wednesday with slow-moving vehicle convoys and road blockages as demonstrations intensified against the military draft of yeshiva students.

The protests began in the afternoon from dozens of locations, with organizers seeking to reach Military Prison 10 near Kfar Yona, which has become a focal point for demonstrations involving detained ultra-Orthodox draft resisters.

Police deployed to prevent protesters from reaching the facility and said demonstrators abandoned vehicles and entered traffic lanes on a highway. Heavy traffic congestion was reported on major roads nationwide.

Reuters images showed ultra-Orthodox protesters on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway near Abu Ghosh, where convoys moved along routes in an effort to block traffic.

Several ultra-Orthodox lawmakers participated in the demonstrations, including United Torah Judaism MK Yitzchak Goldknopf and Shas MK Michael Malkieli.

Goldknopf told Kol Barama radio: “There will come a day when we turn the country upside down.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir also became a target of criticism during the protests.

Demonstrators objected to the police response to arrests linked to draft enforcement, with some carrying signs describing Ben Gvir as the “No. 1 enemy of the Jews.”

Confrontations were reported in several locations. In Arad, clashes broke out between secular residents and ultra-Orthodox protesters, leading police and Border Police forces to intervene.

Arad Mayor Yair Maayan urged calm and called on residents to “act with restraint and mutual respect, and to refrain from violent activity among residents.”

Near Kiryat Ono, video footage showed confrontations between protesters and motorists.

In Kfar Yona, authorities restricted access to neighborhoods near Military Prison 10 after residents organized counterdemonstrations.

Mayor Albert Taieb said the measures were intended to prevent a recurrence of damage and disturbances reported during an ultra-Orthodox protest the previous week.

The dispute over military service has intensified as Israel confronts wartime manpower demands.

While military service is mandatory for most Jewish Israelis, full-time ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students have for generations received exemptions that are now facing growing legal and political challenges.

The post Traffic disruptions spread across Israel as ultra-Orthodox protest military draft appeared first on World Israel News.

Ultra-Orthodox recruits to the IDF must be allowed to maintain their religious lifestyle in the army, says Prime Minister Netanyahu, while calling on men not studying in yeshiva to enlist.

By World Israel News Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that ultra-Orthodox men who are not studying Torah must enlist in the military, while stressing that the IDF must allow them to preserve their religious way of life during service.

Netanyahu made the remarks during a visit to the IDF’s Hasmonean Brigade in the Jordan Valley with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Boaz Bismuth.

“I respect the world of Torah because generations of my ancestors and your ancestors preserved Israel’s heritage through Torah study,” Netanyahu told soldiers. “But those who do not study Torah must enlist. And when they enlist, they must be granted the right to enter ultra-Orthodox and leave ultra-Orthodox.”

The Hasmonean Brigade was established as a framework for ultra-Orthodox soldiers, seeking to combine military service with conditions that allow them to maintain a strict religious lifestyle.

Netanyahu said the brigade represented an effort to bridge the divide between Torah study and military service.

“We are going to connect these two worlds,” he said. “That is what you are doing. You are continuing the legacy of the Hasmoneans.”

He said the soldiers showed that it was possible “to study Torah and serve, maintain an ultra-Orthodox lifestyle and serve, hold the sword of David and serve, and also study.”

“This is the very thing that strengthens us more than anything else,” Netanyahu said.

The prime minister praised the soldiers as pioneers and said others were following their example.

“I am very moved because I was here before you went to the officer training course, and today I am meeting graduates,” he said. “An amazing thing. You are the pioneers, and others are following in your footsteps.”

Netanyahu said he was seeing “a great increase in enlistment” and a growing desire among ultra-Orthodox Jews to defend the state.

His comments came as Israel continues to debate ultra-Orthodox enlistment during the ongoing war, with the military facing manpower needs and the government under pressure to pass new legislation regulating exemptions for yeshiva students.

“We are in the midst of a war, still on seven fronts,” Netanyahu said. “Of course, we have monumental achievements. We are not finished yet, but these achievements come first and foremost from faith, from the spirit, and also from the power, the tools, the technology, and the weapons.”

“But in the end, or rather at the very beginning, this comes from the Hasmonean spirit,” he added. “You are Hasmoneans!”

Bismuth also praised the brigade, calling it evidence of a major shift.

“I am very moved to be here,” Bismuth said. “We are in a place where a real revolution is taking place; we are witnessing something amazing and moving.”

He said the brigade brought together “our two greatest values” — Torah study and the IDF.

“On this base, these two things connect, Torah with uniforms,” Bismuth said. “I want to thank you, Prime Minister Netanyahu, this is happening on your watch. This revolution cannot be stopped.”

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Army chief pushes broader enlistment as Israel marks sacrifice of fallen