Knesset to hold special session on Jerusalem riots

The Knesset will hold a special session on the Jerusalem riots sparked by the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox woman accused of starving her three-year-old son, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said on Saturday.

Rivlin initiated the hearing, which is likely to take place on Tuesday, after requests from Knesset members from multiple political parties.

Rivlin said the special hearing regarding the Jerusalem riots will review the events in a thorough and comprehensive manner, and will also summon Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch in order to address the police's handling of the situation.

The Knesset speaker has the authority to call special sessions in rare cases or in emergencies.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews earlier Saturday hurled stones at passing vehicles in Jerusalem, lightly wounding four people, in a fresh protest against the desecration of Shabbat in the capital.

The four were driving along the city's Bar Ilan road. Two of them were hit in the head by the rocks.

Dozens of Haredim block entrance to Jerusalem parking lot

Dozens of Haredim also blocked the entrance to Jerusalem's Carta parking lot Saturday afternoon in the latest protest against its opening on Shabbat.

One demonstrator was detained by police after he lay down at the entrance to the parking lot.

Jerusalem's deputy mayor, Joseph "Pepe" Alalu, denounced the protests on Saturday evening as "hooliganism."

"This is an attack on democracy, this is a matter of hooliganism. I have participated in hundreds of demonstrations and there was never such behavior. It is not possible that a handful of Haredim will take over and close up Jerusalem," Alalu (Meretz) told Army Radio.

The deputy mayor called the police to arrest the violent protestors and then put them on trial.

"This is a small group of hooligans that uses hooliganism not just against seculars," Alalu added. "I have been threatened, the mayor has been threatened, everyone is scared ? such a thing is not possible."

Saturday was the fourth Shabbat in a row that the parking lot was open by orders of the Jerusalem Municipality to accommodate visitors to the Old City.

Although most senior ultra-Orthodox rabbis and newspapers have abandoned the issue, the extreme Edah Haredit is advocating continued protests.

Meanwhile, Haredi protests over the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox woman suspected of starving her son also continued Friday night.

One Haredi man was lightly injured by a stone to the head as demonstrators threw stones and smashed traffic lights on Bar Ilan Road.

Violent protests began Tuesday after it was announced that the 30-year-old woman, who belongs to one of the most extreme ultra-Orthodox sects in Jerusalem, had been arrested Tuesday for allegedly starving her three-year-old son over the course of two years.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said on Friday he had not been backed by the government during the ongoing unrest in the city in the wake of woman's arrest.

Barkat told Channel 2 News that, "Not only Rabbis should condemn the riots. Government ministers and public figures should speak out, and provide the artillery and air force required to restore public order."