Clashes broke out and arrests were made in three Israeli cities as police moved in to shut down yeshiva religious schools that opened for students despite the coronavirus lockdown. In Jerusalem, water cannons were also deployed.
On Sunday morning, hundreds of Orthodox believers gathered to defend the yeshiva in Jerusalem’s neighborhood of Mea Shearim, a Haredi stronghold in the city. Religious schools that teach the Talmud and the Torah sacred texts are scheduled to open for in-person studies this week, which contradicts the restrictions by the government of PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
As soon as the police arrived, the protesters began tossing foreign objects at the officers and shouting obscenities. They labeled the police “Nazis” and “kapos” – Jews that collaborated with Hitler’s forces during World War II.
There were clashes, which resulted in at least one arrest. The police ended up deploying water cannons to disperse the crowd.
