Jerusalem completely cut off as half a million ultra-Orthodox rally against draft
Demonstration in Jerusalem brings traffic in and around capital to a halt for hours.
By Yair Ettinger
| Mar. 3, 2014 | 1:41 AM |
A massive demonstration by ultra-Orthodox Jews against the government’s proposed military draft law brought hundreds of thousands of Haredim to Jerusalem on Monday, virtually closing off the city. Route 1 into the capital was closed to all traffic except for public transportation, and heavy traffic was reported on other routes in the city.
By 5:30 P.M. around 500,000 protesters, according to police estimates, had gathered near the Chords Bridge at the main entrance to Jerusalem. Some 2,000 buses brought in demonstrators from outside the capital.
About 3,500 police officers, Border Police officers and volunteers were on hand at the demonstration, according to Jerusalem District police chief Maj. Gen. Yossi Pariente. The rally, which ended at about 6 P.M., was peaceful, with soldiers and police officers mingling with the crowd without incident.
Under the hazy yellow skies, one could walk for miles in any direction through Jerusalem’s Haredi neighborhoods in a human forest without reaching the end: around the Kirya government compound, along and under the Chords Bridge, through Kiryat Moshe, Mekor Baruch and Romema, and around the army enlistment office on Rashi Street.
Leaders along the entire spectrum of the Haredi community, from the Sephardi Shas party to the anti-Zionist Eda Haredit, called on their followers to attend, and they responded. Men could be seen roaming the streets in hopes of catching a glimpse of a leading rabbi standing on the balcony of his apartment and observing the goings-on.
The crocheted kippot of the Haredi Zionists were more in evidence on the outskirts of their Kiryat Moshe neighborhood, as this group also sought to identify with the ultra-Orthodox struggle. But few of their rabbis had called on their followers to take part in a rally that was counter to the position of Habayit Hayehudi, a party popular with Haredi Zionists.
No speeches were planned, or made. Instead, the rally took on a religious flavor. Shofars were blown, and rabbis representing the various communities, Ashkenazi and Sephardi alike, recited from Psalms.
The high point of the gathering was when Rabbi Reuven Elbaz led the crowd in the recitation of the prayer “Shema Yisrael,” which was followed by the crowd chanting “The Lord, He is God.”
Source: Haaretz
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.577376