BEIT SHEMESH, Israel — Clashes erupted on Monday between police and several hundred ultra-Orthodox Jews from a town near Jerusalem who are campaigning for men and women to be segregated, an AFP journalist said.
Israeli police had stepped up their patrols in Beit Shemesh following unrest sparked by discrimination against women imposed by a radical fringe of the town’s religious Jews.
Several demonstrators were taken in for questioning after police and journalists were roughed up and insulted by ultra-Orthodox men telling them to “clear off”, the journalist said.
There were also shouting matches between ultra-Orthodox and secular Jews.
Beit Shemesh residents showered police and television crews with eggs and also set fire to the contents of refuse bins.
Several placards urging segregation between men and women that had been removed by police were later put back by protesters.
Earlier, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a man from Beit Shemesh had been arrested over an assault on Sunday on a TV crew filming a sign instructing women to cross the street to avoid walking past a synagogue.
Other signs posted in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood instructed women to dress “modestly” in long sleeves and calf-length skirts.
The Haaretz newspaper said that the cameraman from commercial station Channel Two was thrown to the ground and his sound recordist grabbed by the throat in the attack by ultra-Orthodox men.
read more on JORDAN TIMES:http://jordantimes.com/jewish-gender-segregation-campaign-turns-violent
These people are adherants of Haredi Judaism. Haredi means “one who trembles in awe of God”. Apart from being orthodox in modesty(both men and women) they oppose the ideology of zionism too.
I see a contrast here. Those who are labelled as “ultra-orthodox” are perhaps the only Israeli jewish religious group who have an intenion for peace in the region.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haredim_and_Zionism#Neturei_Karta