Following a long period of time that police abstained from indicting extremist Chareidim who participate in various protests, the direction seems to have changed, Kikar Shabbos reported.

An indictment was filed on Tuesday by the criminal division of the Jerusalem District Prosecutor’s office to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court against a Chareidi protester, charging him of trying to assault policemen.

The indictment said that on October 30, 2018 (the day of Israel’s municipal elections) at about 9 p.m, a protest began at the Bar Ilan intersection in Jerusalem. In the course of the protest, several protestors blocked traffic and a Special Patrol Unit (riot police unit) was sent to the area.

The indictment stated that the defendant approached and “threw objects toward the police and went into the street in order to block traffic a few times,” and also spit at a policeman.

“Through his actions described above, the defendant tried to assault a police officer who was fulfilling his legal duty with intent to obstruct the officer from fulfilling his duty or prevent or hinder him from fulfilling his duty. He also participated in a prohibited gathering, which was initiated to violate the peace and threaten the public.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)