Gallery: Hundreds of haredim riot in Jerusalem

Demonstration marks 100 weeks since municipality opened parking lot on Shabbat; one arrested; police disperse demonstration.

By JONAH MANDEL, JPOST.COM STAFF
haredi protest 311 R (photo credit: REUTERS/Amir Cohen)
haredi protest 311 R
(photo credit: REUTERS/Amir Cohen)
Close to a thousand ultra-Orthodox men held a late Saturday afternoon demonstration in Mea Shearim against the desecration of Shabbat, marking 100 weekends since the Karta parking lot in the capital began to open on the Jewish day of rest.
Police repeatedly stopped the participants from blocking the intersection of Strauss and Hanevi’im, on the southern border of the haredi area in central Jerusalem.
The area resonated with yells of “Shabbes” aimed at security personnel, photographers and cars driving by, as well as at a handful of secular counter-demonstrators on the other side of the street.