• Published 23:18 27.12.09
  • Latest update 23:19 27.12.09

Two cops hurt in clashes with ultra-Orthodox in Jerusalem

Some 1,000 Haredi protesters gather in Jerusalem to rally against Intel decision to stay open on Shabbat.

By Yair Ettinger Tags: Jerusalem Israel news

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators gathered on Sunday evening at an industrial zone in Jerusalem where Intel has its compound, to protest the company's decision to stay open on the Sabbath.

As their protests picked up speed over the course of the evening, the demonstrators began throwing rocks at police officers, wounding two. Two protesters were arrested in the wake of the clashes.

"We hate desecrators of the Sabbath and will continue to fight them," Rabbi Yitzhak Tuvia Weiss, the leader of the Haredi sector said to the protesters.

Although he called on the protesters to break up their protests quietly, the young ultra-Orthodox continued in the thousands to demonstrate near the Golda Meir square in the city center.

After several Haredi protests in November against the computer company, Intel agreed to stop employing Jews for its Saturday shifts at the Jerusalem plant. The rabbis did not accept the offer, however, and vowed to continue to struggle against the company.

Ultra-Orthodox protests over the past few months have subjected police to verbal and physical violence, which was said to represent a transgression of limitations set last summer by Rabbi Weiss, after officers warned him they may not be able to control their men if they continue to be subjected to spits and taunts.

Haredi rabbis have warned not to physically assault police and particularly not to spit at them.

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  • 6. 0 0
    We don't tell you
    • Danny Negedat
    • 07.01.10
    • 17:38

    We don't tell you how to live- don't tell us how to live. Enough of the haredim trying to force their primitive belief system on us. Why are they not arrested AND serve time in jail, like the common criminals they are? We are paying their taxes, water bill etc. Why do we not stop that???

  • 5. 0 0
    observation
    • potobac
    • 28.12.09
    • 12:29

    There is a simple solution - just treat all rioters alike. If these people were confronted with the treatment a group of Palestinians using the same tactics would get, much of the problem would solve itself.

  • 4. 0 0
    we are doomed
    • amos
    • 28.12.09
    • 02:18

    the state, if ever there will still be one, can not by eny means continue as it is. either we we create a constitutional separation between state and religion which means a real secular regim, or we will be flooded by religieuos extremists, and they will all end as such.

  • 3. 0 0
    Intel Demonstraters
    • ik
    • 28.12.09
    • 01:47

    I believe the police should TAKE THEIR HATS OFF! That should get them runnung!

  • 2. 0 0
    As a retired engineer in solid state devices, ...
    • Jasper
    • 28.12.09
    • 01:30

    ... I assure you that the technology is such that you cannot simply shut down the manufacturing processes. It's not like sewing buttons. G_d will understand on this one. Please go back to your parking lot crusade. Much less damage potential there.

  • 1. 0 0
    observation
    • potobac
    • 28.12.09
    • 01:10

    I await with interest the proclamations by those who call for shooting Palestinians who throw rocks to call for the same measures with these people. As far as I can see, a rock is just as harmful to an IDF person no matter what the religion of the person throwing it.