Club-wielding police broke up a street battle between non-religious and Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem’s Bukharan quarter yesterday after yeshiva students hurling rocks at passing motorists were confronted by local residents who responded in kind. Five students were arrested.
The incident ended a long period of uneasy truce between the secular Jews of Bukharan and residents of the neighboring ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim and Geula quarters. The yeshiva students were protesting soccer games on a nearby playing field on Saturday afternoon.
The pitch battle lasted for several hours before the police intervened. No injuries were reported but there was extensive damage to windows of shops and residential bulidings.
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