Israel Police, Orthodox Jews Clash Over Sabbath Traffic on Highway

Police on horseback clashed Saturday with thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews who tried to block a newly opened highway, claiming that traffic will disrupt their Sabbath observances.

Ten protesters were detained and four police officers were injured, one requiring hospitalization, city police spokeswoman Anat Granit said. Ultra-Orthodox leaders said five protesters were injured from police blows, Israel Radio reported.

Saturday’s protests continued late into the night, with reports of sporadic stone-throwing along the highway, but there were no injuries, the radio said. Garbage cans along the route were also set ablaze.

The four-lane highway, named Peace Road, was opened Tuesday to link the northern neighborhoods of Ramot Eshkol with Mandelbaum gate in the eastern part of Jerusalem. It was built partly to allow Israeli motorists to bypass stones thrown by activists in the 3 1/2-year-old Palestinian uprising.

But parts of the 1 1/4-mile stretch also run next to Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim quarter, which is home to thousands of Hasidim or ultra-Orthodox Jews who adhere to religious law that bans driving on the Sabbath.

The community wants the highway closed during the Sabbath.

Nearly 4,000 ultra-Orthodox men dressed in customary black suits marched to the road Saturday to protest, Granit said. “Many of them knocked over our barricades and rioted . . . throwing stones at police,” she said.

Israel Radio said one of the injured police officers was punched in the face. It quoted a protest leader, Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, as saying five protesters were injured when police hit them with sticks.

Jerusalem Police Chief Haim Albaldess said the clash erupted when the demonstrators broke an agreement with the authorities.

“They tried to get to Highway One in contradiction of the condition” permitting their demonstration on Shmuel Hanavi Road, which is closed to traffic on the Sabbath and runs parallel to the new road, he told Israel Radio. “Therefore, we prevented their bursting onto the highway.”

Jerusalem is home to 360,000 Jews and 140,000 Palestinians, most of whom live in the eastern sector, which was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War and later annexed.

The ultra-Orthodox are an influential minority in the city. Traffic is banned on the Sabbath inside neighborhoods where they are a majority, but there often are disputes over peripheral highways.

Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek said the ultra-Orthodox had demonstrated violently against new roadways open to traffic on the Sabbath in years past, but after a number of confrontations with police, they accepted the new roads.