Haredi-religious residents of Modiin Illit sought to enjoy a Sunday-evening lecture by the haredi military correspondent of the Hamodia' newspaper, Yisrael Katzover. When it became known to local members of the extremist Peleg Yerushalmi [Jerusalem faction -ed.], they were outraged that the city was subsidizing such lectures and, in their words, was trying to "assimilate IDF values in the city."
Just before the lecture, they gathered outside the hall where he was going to deliver his lecture and began to demonstrate. Katzover left in response.