JERUSALEM (AP) — An attempt by Israeli authorities to write a routine parking ticket in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem turned violent on Thursday as members of the community quickly gathered to protest, attacking and injuring 13 police officers, authorities said.
The violence reflected growing tensions between the Israeli authorities and the ultra-Orthodox, known as Haredim, as the government mulls plans to draft them into the military. Clashes have often broken out recently when Israeli authorities have entered the crowded and insular ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.
Police said the clashes first broke out after an inspector tried to issue a parking ticket and was met with violence and threats. The police made one arrest. Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protesters soon arrived, trying to free the suspect, damaging police cars and throwing stones and eggs at the police, they said.
In response, police threw stun grenades, fired water cannons and beat protesters with batons, according to videos circulating on Israeli social media.
Residents accused the police of trying to arrest the man for failing to register for the draft — an accusation police denied.
Five policemen were brought to the hospital and several others were lightly injured. As of Thursday afternoon, police said they had arrested four people and an were investigating several others.
Photos circulating on Israeli social media showed an overturned car and vehicles with broken windshields.
Later on Thursday, ultra-Orthodox protesters blocked a major highway along Israel’s coast, police said. No violence was immediately reported.
When Israel was founded in 1948, a small number of gifted ultra-Orthodox scholars were granted exemptions from the draft, which is compulsory for most Jews. But with a push from politically powerful religious parties, those numbers have swelled over the decades.
Many secular Israelis — especially those who have served multiple rounds of duty in the latest war between Israel and the Palestinian militant Hamas group in Gaza — now support rolling back that exemption and drafting the ultra-Orthodox.
However, measures to draft the ultra-Orthodox have been met with staunch opposition and at times violence from religious protesters, who claim that serving in the military will destroy their way of life.
Roughly 1.3 million ultra-Orthodox Jews make up about 13% of Israel’s population and oppose enlistment because they believe studying full time in religious seminaries is their most important duty.