A yeshivah bochur was arrested late Sunday night in Jerusalem for “draft-dodging,” leading to a large and violent protest near the local police station, where hundreds gathered to protest.

The incident began when military police arrested Yosef Levy, a talmid of the Pe’er Yosef yeshiva, in the Armon HaNetziv neighborhood of Jerusalem, shortly after midnight. According to reports, he refused to identify himself to the military police officers and was later transferred to a police station for identification before being taken to a military prison.

Following the arrest, hundreds of residents from Jerusalem and surrounding areas arrived outside the police station to protest. A large number of Border Police forces were deployed to the scene, and officers used stun grenades, batons, and other crowd-control measures to disperse the crowd.

At the same time, dozens of protesters also gathered at the Kikar HaShabbat intersection in Jerusalem to protest the arrest. During the dispersal operation, Border Police officers were filmed striking protesters with batons.

On the day before Shavuos, an avreich from Ofakim was stopped on a highway by traffic police and handed over to military police in the first implementation of the new policy announced last week by Police Chief Danny Levy to transfer every draft evader encountered by officers to the military police.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)