A rock-throwing chanting crowd of some 4,000 religious zealots, protesting autopsies in Israeli hospitals, clashed with police in Jerusalem’s center yesterday. Police reported today that 33 persons, including 20 policemen, were injured in the melee.
The injured included Jerusalem police commander Daniel Bareli and his deputy, Shimon Markowitz. Seventeen demonstrators were arrested, one of them a young American yeshiva student, Haim David Ruttenberg. The Red Magen David reported that many of the injured needed stitches to close head wounds inflicted by the flying rocks.
During the five hours of the demonstration, police appeared at one stage to have lost control of the zealots, who sang prayers, danced, blew ram’s horns or listened to talks by leading rabbis. They completely blocked central Jerusalem’s streets. Finally 200 police were called in, many on horseback, to disperse the demonstration.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
