Six police officers hurt as Haredi riots renew in Jerusalem

Jerusalem police on Saturday arrested 16 ultra-Orthodox demonstrators who took part in violent clashes with security forces to protest the municipality's decision to open a parking garage on the Sabbath. Six police officers and passerby were injured during the incidents. Three of the officers required medical attention.

A protester who had joined a group of ultra-Orthodox men who blocked a road near the garage suffered moderate injuries after he was struck by a car that dragged him for several dozen meters.

Following the incident, the radical Orthodox sect that has spearheaded the demonstrations is threatening to escalate the protests.

Another victim of the unrest was a woman who was hit by shattered glass after stones were thrown at the car in which she was traveling along Bar-Ilan Street, one of the city's main thoroughfares. She was sitting in the passenger's seat and was lightly hurt.

For the first time since the municipality opened the Karta parking garage, members of the Eda Haredit sect extended the protests over the course of two days.

Authorities say an estimated 1,500 protesters took part in the violent protests. Immediately following Friday prayers, hundreds of protesters flocked to the area and tried to block cars from entering the garage. As a group of protesters blocked the way, one car began speeding off in an effort to avoid the mob and in the process struck a young man in his 20s.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1110954.html

The one goes with the other.

which is exactly WHY the haredim are rioting.

You are confusing a state with a religious identity (i.e. Israel as a homeland for the Jewish nation) with a religious state, i.e. a state based on religious law. Israel's prevailing legal system is a mix of British Common Law, Ottoman Law and Halacha (Jewish law).

It is no accident that our fundies are such bosom buddies with Israel's fundies.

Religious groups have too much influence on the government, but they do not control the state.

A 'Jewish state' means a homeland for Jews (religious, ethnic or both); it does not mean that they are required to conform to Jewish religious law. E.g. it's perfectly possible to buy ham and pork in Israel, and you will not be punished for doing so.

Along with a brutal occupation and other forms of repression.

they're rioting on the Sabbath? Isn't that against the rules?

I believe it is in the Tanach somewhere....

Dozens of people, mostly women, ride on 'mehadrin' buses in which men and women sit separately and sit at front of bus in protest. Protesters demand an end to discrimination that forces women to sit at back of bus for modesty reasons. Protesters make sure to respect religious ban on coming in physical contact with opposite sex

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3769141,00.html

<snip>

"The protest against gender-segregated bus lines stepped up. Dozens of protesters, mainly women, rode en masse on buses labeled 'mehadrin lines' in Jerusalem in which women must sit at the back of bus out for modesty reasons.

Under the banner "Free transportation day – putting an end to discrimination in public spaces," the protesters flocked early in the morning on Sunday to 'mehadrin line' bus stops. When the buses arrived, they sat in the men's section at the front of the bus. The protesters, among them members of city council Laura Wharton and Rachel Azaria, wore red bracelets on their wrists as a sign of their protest and distributed to the passengers information booklets against the controversial separation between the sexes.

"We are acting as responsibly as possible. We instructed all our male and female activists to act respectfully and to dress appropriately," said Ella (Academia without Harassment) Spokesperson Shiran Dadon. "We instructed all of our activists not to sit next to bachelor yeshiva students and for men not to sit next to women out of respect of their desire not to come in physical contact with the opposite sex."

"We are not fighting against the haredi community or against Jewish religion, but against the scheme 'to hide' women under the robe of 'modesty.' We act with the most possible sensitivity, but also with the necessary determination in order to fight against the severe physical and verbal shows of violence that women are subjected to on these bus lines on a daily basis," explained Dadon."