Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox men held a prayer gathering
outside police headquarters in Jerusalem Friday night.
The men were protesting
the continued incarceration of two of their community members who were indicted
for assaulting police officers called to the scene of a mob attack on a Haredi
soldier in Mea Shearim on Tuesday.
If convicted, the two men, Joseph Braun and Jacob
Krischavski, could face at least three years in prison.
No violent incidents were recorded during the prayer
session.
The attack came days after the Knesset gave initial approval
for a proposal to draft Haredi men into the Israeli Defense Forces.
A small
number of Haredi leaders have allowed and in some cases encouraged enlistment,
but the majority have resisted the draft. The proposed law has sparked numerous
protests.
Another Haredi soldier was assaulted in Jerusalem on
Thursday, this time in the neighborhood of Shmuel Hanavi, situated north of Mea
Shearim. Assailants threw objects at the soldier from a van.
On Tuesday, officers were called to Mea Shearim after dozens
of Haredi men intimidated a Haredi soldier. The men gathered outside the office
of the uncle of the soldier, who came to visit his relative during a short
leave from the army, according to the indictment filed on Thursday by the
Jerusalem prosecutor’s office with the city’s Magistrate’s Court.
The soldier, who does not live in Jerusalem, was wearing a
uniform and a black kipah. Several dozen men gathered around him and hurled
garbage as he was walking to the office.
He entered the office, changed to
civilian clothes and called police as the crowd chanted insults outside.
The two defendants and several other individuals hurled
stones, metal bars and water buckets at the police.
Braun and Krischavski, both
in their early 20s, were charged with aggravated assault of a police officer,
obstructing a police officer and rioting.
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