Israeli police clash with angry mob of religious Jews over court sentence

ISRAELI police forces clashed yesterday in Jerusalem with ultra-Orthodox Jews protesting a court sentence handed to a member of the religious community for assaulting a policewoman.

Gabel Eliezer, a 37-year-old Jew from the hardline Toldot Aharon sect, was sentenced yesterday by a Jerusalem court to three months in prison over the incident, which occurred 15 months ago.

He was sentenced for attacking and spitting the policewoman, who was trying to break up a protest staged in and around a synagogue where members of the community were meeting to discuss the issue of a shop allegedly selling pornographic videos.