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Haredi extremists rioted in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh on Monday over what they viewed as the desecration of graves.
The rioters, some of whom were affiliated with the Atra Kadisha, an organization dedicated to the preservation of ancient Jewish burial places, believe that there are hundreds of potentially Jewish graves at the Goloventzitz construction site in Ramat Beit Shemesh, where the new Ramat Avraham neighborhood is slated to be built.
The police made 29 arrests during the riot in Beit Shemesh on charges of causing an affray, attacking police officers and lighting fires. One of those arrested was a minor. According to a police spokesman, several officers suffered minor injuries.
In Jerusalem, several dozen haredi extremists took to the streets to protest the construction work in Beit Shemesh, and burned trash cans and dumpsters in the central Kikar Shabbat intersection of the Mea She'arim neighborhood, as well as on Malchei Yisrael and Yehezkel streets.
Stones were thrown at buses passing through the neighborhood, breaking several windows. There were no arrests in Jerusalem, the police said.
The Atra Kadisha claims it is forbidden under Jewish law to open the graves and check if they are Jewish or not, and therefore other solutions need to be found.
According to Yitzhak Weiss, a haredi journalist who identifies with Atra Kadisha, the organization suggested a plan whereby there would be certain structural changes made to the building, at a cost to those who bought apartments, in order to ensure that the graves were not harmed and to allow the construction to continue.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Ahrale Yakter, the director of a separate group called the Association for the Prevention of Grave Desecration, denied these claims and said that there was no reason one couldn't carry out the necessary inspections to determine whether the graves were Jewish.
He rejected the notion that such inspections would contravene Jewish law, and remarked that his organization had worked with building contractors around the country to solve such issues.
Yakter cited the opinion of Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch - head of the Eda Haredit's Rabbinical Court and the second-most senior figure in the hard-line organization - that it is permitted to check the graves.
Last year, Sternbuch publicly criticized Atra Kadisha for protests...