Left-wing demonstrators against the legal reform today (Tuesday) turned a significant part of the protest against the rabbinical courts in Tel Aviv, Ashdod, Petach Tikva, Haifa, Rehovot and the Jerusalem Religious Council.
In Tel Aviv, protesters blocked the entrance to the offices of the Rabbinical Court on David Hamelech Avenue and began hitting the doors of the building, which were immediately locked.
The management of the rabbinic courts were outraged at the attempt to incite the demonstrators against them. "The management of the rabbinical courts protests involving the courts in a political protest as well as the violence of the demonstrators and attempts to hurt security guards. The management condemns the disruption of court proceedings, during which demonstrators tried to dislodge the doors of the building and cause damage to it."
A rabbinic court judge in Tel Aviv told Arutz Sheva: "We are under siege since the morning. This is an untenable situation. Imagine what would happen if right wing protestors would launch an attack on the Supreme Court building, try to dislodge doors and prevent people from entering the area."
The director of the rabbinical courts, Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan, said that, "the rabbinical court system has nothing to do with the legal reform. The argument against the trend of transferring alimony matters from the civic courts to the rabbinic courts is also wrong. Rabbinical courts have discussed these matters every day since the inception of the State. The rabbinic courts rule according to Jewish Law in favor of women in the issue of alimony because according to Halakha, the obligation of alimony rests with the husband, as opposed to civic courts that judge according to the income level balance [of the couple]."
Head of the Rabbinate, Chief Rabbi David Lau, said he "vigorously protests against the unprecedented and irresponsible behavior of a small handful of people preventing litigants whose case is to be discussed today from entering the court."
"This illegal and undemocratic anarchy. The judges will not be deterred and will continue to work on behalf of the citizens of Israel. I appeal to the law enforcement authorities to treat these acts with the full severity of the law," concluded Rabbi Lau.
The National Day of Disruption was launched this morning (Tuesday) by left-wing organizations as the government continues to push a bill to abolish the reasonableness cause. As of now, all highways have been re-opened to traffic and 17 protesters have been detained.
In one incident, one protester who tried to block traffic on Route 531 was run over by a vehicle and seriously injured and taken to Beillinson Hospital.
Police detained the driver for questioning, and at this stage it appears that this was not an intentional run-over.