Haredi protesters shut down highway near Bnei Brak over draft dodger’s arrest

Haredi extremists blocked the Geha Interchange in the Petah Tikva and Bnei Brak area on Monday evening, as well as Jabotinsky Street, which separates the two cities, in protest against the arrest of a haredi draft dodger. During the protest, demonstrators sat down on the road and sang, “Better to die as a haredi than to live as a secular Jew," “The army is worse than death," and “To Auschwitz and not to the army." Police declared the demonstration illegal and announced that they would soon begin forcibly removing the protesters. In a statement issued yesterday, the “Am Kadosh" organization, which assists draft dodgers, said: “In recent hours, the prisoner of the Torah world, Yisrael Guhafi, a student at the Beit Midrash Elyon Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, was ‘abducted’ to military prison. In recent days, he transferred to study at the Kfar Hasidim Yeshiva, and today, while on his way to Rechasim, he was arrested by police in Haifa over a problem with his Rav-Kav card and handed over to the Military Police."