Haredis protest in Jerusalem

About 200 ultra-Orthodox demonstrators set trash cans on fire and threw rocks at police officers in Jerusalem in protest of the removal of graves in Ashkelon.

The demonstrators also were protesting the May 17 arrest of a man who is suspected of snatching the body of a dead woman to prevent an autopsy in late February.

The May 17 demonstrations followed similar rioting the previous day in Jerusalem and Ashkelon to protest the removal by the Israel Antiquities Authority of graves from the construction site of a protected emergency room at the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. All of the graves have been found to be non-Jewish, from the Byzantine era, according to reports. The bones were to be reburied early this week.

On May 16 the Jerusalem municipality halted city services to several haredi neighborhoods after municipal workers were attacked. The damage from the riots, including to garbage bins, roads, vehicles, traffic lights and street lights, was put at about $270,000. Repair costs will be borne by the municipality, Ynet reported. — jta