JERUSALEM (JTA) — Fervently Orthodox, or haredi, protesters attacked Eli Yishai’s car in Jerusalem’s Meah Shearim neighborhood.
The interior minister, from the Orthodox Shas Party, was paying a condolence call at the home of Lithuanian haredi leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, had to be extricated from the area by police after the tires of his car were slashed and the car was pelted with stones and eggs. The protesters also threw rocks at Yishai.
Monday night’s attack on Yishai followed the arrest earlier in the day of about 80 haredi protestors in Jaffa. The demonstrators were protesting construction work on a site that they believe was a Jewish cemetery in the past; they also demonstrated there last week.
Dozens of haredi men were also arrested Monday near Shabbat Square in Jerusalem after protesting the arrests in Jaffa. The protesters slashed bus tires, set fire to garbage bins and blocked a main road.
