Haredim throw rocks at police in Mea Shearim

Six police officers injured by stones thrown at them by protesters; five haredim arrested for disturbing public order

Several hundred haredi protesters threw stones, bottles and pieces of metal at police in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim on Wednesday.

Six police officers were injured by stones thrown at them by protesters. Five of the injured were treated at the scene and one officer, suffering from a head injury, was evacuated to the hospital. Five people were arrested for disturbing public order.

The protesters set trash cans on fire and poured oil on the street. Police succeeded in dispersing the protesters with stun grenades and water cannons and were leaving the neighborhood.

Police were accompanying tax authority and municipality officials who raided the chicken slaughterhouse belonging to Yoelish Krois, the unofficial "operations officer" of the Eda Haredit, the small anti-Zionist extreme haredi group. [Edah Chareidit is the umbrella organization of the various hasidic sects and other groups that make up the population of Mea Shearim and its satellite neighborhoods.

It's beit din, religious court, is also a kosher supervising agency known as Badatz Yerushalayim.–Shmarya] Krois was arrested during the raid. His business has been operating for some ten years without the proper licenses.

Police rejected the claim that the raid and arrest took place to prevent Krois from holding a press conference planned for later in the day, in which he was set to announce the escalation in the Shabbat demonstrations of Jerusalem members of the Eda Haredit.

In recent Saturdays, haredi protesters have reached Rehov Hanevi'im and attempted to block the street, which is the central traffic artery available now that Rehov Yaffo has been closed for cars in favor of the nascent light rail. Secular activists have been protesting at the site, and claiming that police were not taking the sufficient efforts to prevent the road's closure, as well as the stoning of cars traveling there on Shabbat.