JERUSALEM — Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews blocked highways across Israel on Thursday to protest attempts to draft them into the army, clashing with club-wielding police who aimed water cannons and fired stun grenades at crowds of black-garbed men.
The violent protests came days after a Supreme Court ruling ordered funding halted to ultra-Orthodox seminaries whose students dodge the draft and laid bare one of the deepest rifts in Israeli society, highlighting the fundamental disagreements between its secular majority and a devout minority over the character of the Jewish state.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews have for years been exempt from military service, which is compulsory for other Jewish Israelis. The arrangement has caused widespread resentment and featured prominently in last year’s election, after which the ultra-Orthodox parties lost ground and found themselves outside the governing coalition.
The new government immediately began pushing a bill that will alter the existing system to reduce the number of exemptions and require all to register for service. While it awaits parliamentary approval, this week’s court ruling marked the first concrete sanction against draft dodgers and sparked angry reactions from ultra-Orthodox leaders.
The opposition spilled into the streets Thursday in the form of about a half-dozen simultaneous demonstrations that snarled traffic for several hours.
