Dozens of Haredi extremists rioted on Bar Ilan Street in Jerusalem Thursday night, attacking ongoing construction of the city’s light rail Green Line, setting fires, uprooting metal fences, and hurling stones at police. Two suspects were arrested; Israel National News reported at least one was taken in on suspicion of arson.
The incident is the latest in a six-year campaign of protests that N12 says have caused more than NIS 400 million (‑≈ US $110 million) in damages to the unfinished Green Line — enough to force the operator, Kfir, to change opening dates and reroute sections.
Police said they used stun grenades after declaring the disturbance illegal, and a second arrest followed for a suspect identified as one of those throwing stones. TV reports said several of the demonstrators had also been investigated over a June riot at the home of the deputy Supreme Court chief justice — a case that had already made the case for tougher enforcement in the Haredi world.
The Green Line — which runs through East Jerusalem’s Haredi neighborhoods — has been a lightning rod for ultra-Orthodox opposition for years. Protests typically cite the disruption to daily life, but the damage has become a political weapon: critics on both sides now see it as the clearest indicator of how much social friction the country can absorb around the issue of gender integration, public transit, and the limits of religious exemption.
Reported by The Times of Israel, citing police, Channel 10, and N12.