Dozens of demonstrators from the radically anti-Zionist haredi Jerusalem Faction clashed with police on Monday morning at the entrance to the Tel Hashomer Recruiting Office in central Israel.
The police have declared the demonstration an illegal assembly and have so far arrested three individuals.
The demonstration was held ahead of the arrival of haredi men who were summoned for pre-draft evaluations following a Supreme Court ruling on the matter. The summonses were only sent to haredim who are listed in the National Insurance Institute as receiving monthly pay slips and do not meet the requirements of the exemption law.
Some protesters were seen accosting young religious men who arrived at the recruiting office in an attempt to convince them not to report for duty.
The police and IDF have prepared for such demonstrations sending a large force to the area and closing roads near the recruitment office.
The IDF estimates that only 10-15% of 1,200 haredim who were summoned will indeed report and has already made it clear that if few report more orders will be sent.
Posters hung in haredi population centers called the haredi public to prepare for "giant demonstrations against the draft."
Among other things, the posters stated: "Since the establishment of the state until today, there has not been such a terrible holocaust against the young men of haredi Judaism in the Holy Land! The swords of enlistment have never been waved against 1000 boys in a day, and that's only the beginning."
The posters also stated that for those who wish to claim that "the decree is only against those who work and so on, comes the letter from the Deputy Attorney General that was sent to the army that shatters the illusion."
The poster quoted the heads of the Edah HaHareidit calling for everyone to go to the enlistment centers to "prevent the terrible religious persecution of sending thousands of Jewish boys to the military melting pot."