Israeli police confront Jewish protesters in Jerusalem

[Whitney]

JERUSALEM, June 6 (Reuters) - Israeli police fired water cannons at hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem who threw stones in protest on Saturday against the opening of a public parking lot they see as a violation of religious law.

Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said six officers were injured by stones and five protesters were arrested in the scuffles that erupted at the Israeli city hall building.

The protest pointed up continuing tensions between Israel's largely secular Jewish population and an Orthodox Jewish minority that insists the Jewish state follow ancient religious laws that proscribe driving or working on the Jewish sabbath.

Violence flared when hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews wearing traditional black robes tried to break into a parking lot beneath the city hall building officials had recently decided to open on the sabbath, a day most public buildings are closed.

Protesters "surrounded the building and were trying to break in from several directions" when police stopped them, Rosenfeld said.

Demonstrators responded by throwing stones and bottles, and hundreds more joined in confrontations that erupted in several other Jerusalem neighbourhoods, Rosenfeld said.

Jerusalem, a city holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, is also at the heart of Israel's conflict with the Palestinians. Israel has annexed Arab East Jerusalem, captured in a 1967 war, as part of its capital, a move not recognised internationally.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as capital of a future state that they seek in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank.

Source:  http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L6454046.htm

Notice that they are upset about the government breaking ancient sabbath laws yet had no problem trying to break into the facility.