Overview
- Up to about 200,000 people gathered in Jerusalem to oppose conscription, partially paralyzing public transport as police closed a main approach and deployed roughly 2,000 officers.
- The demonstration, called by the United Torah Judaism and Shas parties, sought restoration of the long-standing arrangement that spared full-time yeshiva students from military service.
- Organizers told crowds to disperse after a 15-year-old boy died from a fall during the event, bringing the mass prayer-protest to an abrupt end.
- Authorities have issued thousands of recruitment orders in recent months, and several alleged deserters were jailed, intensifying anger in the ultra-Orthodox community.
- United Torah Judaism and Shas have left the government pending passage of a new law, and experts say Netanyahu could lose his majority if Shas quits the coalition, raising the prospect of early elections.