Ultra-Orthodox Jews, riot police clash in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM — Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews clashed with riot police in central Jerusalem on Saturday night in the latest protest against the city's decision to open a municipal parking lot on the Jewish Sabbath.

Dressed in traditional cloaks and fur hats, demonstrators forced the closure of several major streets, and some hurled rocks at motorists along a Jerusalem highway, said police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld. No injuries were reported.

Known in Hebrew as "haredim," or those who fear God, ultra-Orthodox Jews make up a growing percentage of Jerusalem's population and have targeted the opening of the parking lot as part of an ongoing struggle over the city's direction. They adhere to a rigid code of behavior, in which strict observance of Sabbath is a central tenet.

"There is a difference between the desecration of the Sabbath on an individual basis and the cancellation of the Sabbath," said Rabbi Shimon Weiss, a leader of the Eda Haredit movement, which has promised weekly protests until Mayor Nir Barkat reverses his decision. "The opening of the parking lot will bring about the opening of shops and shopping malls and more Sabbath desecration."

Barkat's decision to open a lot near the Old City's Jaffa Gate aimed to solve a routine municipal problem — a lack of weekend parking — but disturbed the informal status quo regarding the period between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday.

During Sabbath, most commerce is halted, though clusters of restaurants remain open, and certain roads are blocked to keep ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods quiet and car-free. But professional soccer games at the local stadium on Saturday are tolerated.

Municipal facilities are, as a rule, closed, so the decision to open the lot was seen as an official endorsement of driving on a day when Jewish law prohibits operating machinery, even pushing elevator buttons. On a recent Saturday, a steady trickle of cars flowed into the three-floor facility.

Barkat changed the location of the open lot to one farther from an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, promised it would be staffed by non-Jews and waived fees so money would not change hands, another Sabbath prohibition.

Still, the crowds have gathered. An estimated 30,000 people joined in a mass prayer one Friday night in June, and there are plans for a children's protest this week.

"It's as if they are calling upon the public to come and desecrate the Sabbath," said Rabbi Yitzhak Goldknop, secretary of the Rabbinical Committee for the Sanctity of the Sabbath. "It hurts us and hurts our feelings and the feelings of any believing Jew."