Kikar Hashabbat reports that a secret agreement has been hammered out between the extremist Yerushalmi Faction (Jerusalem Faction) and the Israel Police that will keep the capital free of protests.
According to the report, the Jerusalem Faction told police that it would cease holding violent protests in the capital if police refrained from turning 14 yeshiva students that were arrested last month at a rally over to the military police.
Police commonly turn over haredi detainees to the IDF after they are detained. By law, every Jewish Israeli must register for the draft before the age of 18. Anyone who brings a letter from his yeshiva head is given an automatic deferment for as long as he remains in yeshiva.
However, those belonging to the Jerusalem Faction refuse to register, and therefore do not receive their legal deferments, placing them at risk of being arrested for draft-dodging.
The Yerushalmi Faction has orchestrated a series of protests and road-blocking demonstrations nationwide in recent years.
The Jerusalem Faction, which was founded by the late Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, has demanded the IDF issue blanket exemptions to all haredi men, and has rejected the present system, under which full-time yeshiva students are granted draft deferments, renewable each year.