Police: Religious Jews stabbed and wounded after altercation with secular Jews in Jerusalem

Police: Religious Jews stabbed in Jerusalem fight

JERUSALEM — Two religious Jews were stabbed and another beaten in a Saturday altercation with secular Jewish residents of Jerusalem, said a police spokesman, in an incident that could worsen already tense relations between the city’s residents.

The three men were moderately wounded and hospitalized in the dawn incident which took place in a conservative Jerusalem neighborhood, said spokesman Shmuel Ben Ruby.

The police spokesman said the wounded told police that they were attacked by secular Jews but said he would have no further details until the men could be interviewed again on Saturday evening at the conclusion of the Jewish Sabbath.

Already tense relations between Jerusalem’s religious and secular Jews have worsened since the municipality opened a parking lot on the Jewish Sabbath when religious Jews believes it violates their faith to drive vehicles.

Jerusalem’s mayor opened the facility to ease illegal parking in the city’s ancient walled quarter. But opening the parking lot has prompted weekly demonstrations by ultra-orthodox protesters offended by what they see as the municipality violating the biblical command to rest on the Sabbath.

Another protest is expected Saturday evening.

For years there’s been simmering resentment as the city has become increasingly dominated by deeply conservative Jews, and thousands of secular residents leave every year.

Secular residents say that their religious counterparts are trying to impose their beliefs in Jerusalem. They turned out in droves last November to elect a secular mayor, Nir Barkat, defeating his challenger from Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox community.