An ultra-Orthodox Jew threw himself under the wheels of idling car and was moderately injured Saturday during a protest against the operation of a Jerusalem parking garage on the Jewish Sabbath, police said.
Ultra-Orthodox protesters have converged on the parking garage every week since the Jerusalem municipality decided this summer to allow it to open on the Sabbath. Driving is a violation of the Sabbath under Jewish law. The protesters have scuffled with police and some have thrown themselves in front of vehicles to try to prevent them from driving.
On Friday, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmulik Ben-Ruby said it was not clear whether the driver knew the man had crawled underneath his car when it was stopped at a traffic light.
The protester was dragged several dozen yards before the vehicle stopped, Ben-Ruby said. The driver fled the scene and police set up roadblocks to try to apprehend him, he said.
The municipality allowed the parking garage to open on Saturdays earlier this summer to limit illegal parking in the city's ancient walled quarter.
Tensions between Jerusalem's religious and secular communities have been simmering for years as the ultra-Orthodox have grown in size and influence, now numbering about one-third of the city's 750,000 residents. Secular residents say the religious are trying to impose their beliefs on Jerusalem, and the atmosphere is one reason thousands of secular Jerusalemites leave the city each year.
Earlier this summer, religious demonstrators touched off the worst riots in the city in years to protest the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox woman who authorities say was starving her child. The insular ultra-Orthodox community resents outside interference in its affairs.