Dozens of ultra-Orthodox men blocked Route 443, a main highway that runs through the West Bank, on Friday after a Haredi draft dodger was arrested at a checkpoint on the road.
The man, identified as a yeshiva student in his 20s from Ashdod, was initially stopped at the Ofer Crossing on suspicion of driving a stolen vehicle, police said. Officers then also discovered he was wanted for failing to report for mandatory military service.
The demonstrators arrived “a short while later,” according to police, who said they were working “to restore order at the scene and open the route for traffic.” Route 443 is a secondary highway connecting Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The alleged draft dodger had not been transferred to the custody of the military police, according to the Kan public broadcaster.
According to the Haredi news outlet Haredim Jerusalem, friends of the detainee disputed the stolen car allegation, saying the vehicle belonged to a man who was abroad and unavailable by phone. Police said the vehicle had appeared in their systems as stolen.
The Friday protests came days after Haredi protesters blocked highways in central Israel on Monday, in opposition to another arrest of an ultra-Orthodox man for evading service in the Israel Defense Forces.
חרדים חוסמים את כביש 443 במעבר עופר במחאה על מעצר עריק – שנתפס כשהוא נוהג ברכב גנוב@daniel_grovais @VeredPelman @HGoldich pic.twitter.com/hb0rDBlBFN
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) August 28, 2026
Monday’s protest was the first major anti-draft demonstration in weeks, ending a period of relative quiet over the past month that coincided with yeshivas’ summer break.
The arrests and ongoing protests stem from a landmark June 2024 High Court ruling that found there was no longer any legal basis for blanket military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students and ordered the state to begin drafting them.