Haredi protesters blocked major streets in central Israel on Wednesday, causing significant traffic disruptions, in a demonstration organized by the extremist ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem Faction against the recent arrest of a draft-evading yeshiva student.

The protest was the first of its kind in several weeks, following a series of similar protests earlier this year. Hundreds were expected to take part after the Jerusalem Faction called on its adherents to “make the earth shake.”

The detained Haredi man at the center of the protest was arrested on Tuesday while exiting a police station after being questioned on an unrelated matter. A military police vehicle was waiting for him outside of the station, Channel 12 reported, and he was transferred from there to a military prison.

As part of their preparations for the demonstration, the Israel Police blocked off major roads in the central Haredi city of Bnei Brak.

A stretch of Jabotinsky Road, which runs from Petah Tikva to Tel Aviv, was shut down in the city, and a portion of Route 4 was blocked off abutting the ultra-Orthodox city from the east.

As the demonstration got underway, protesters were seen sitting and standing in the middle of Route 4, some of them wearing yellow stars with the word “Haredi” emblazoned on them, in a bid to compare their plight to that of victims of the Holocaust.

One man could be seen holding a sign that read, in English and Hebrew, “It was better to die as a Jew in the Holocaust than to spiritually die in IDF camps.”

Cries of “we will die rather than enlist” — a staple chant at the Haredi anti-conscription protests — filled the air, accompanied by the blare of car horns from frustrated drivers hoping........

© The Times of Israel