[UPDATE ADDED BELOW] Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews from the anti-Zionist Satmar sect were bused into Manhattan's Foley Square yesterday for a demonstration against an Israeli legislature proposal to draft Yeshiva students into the army. According to Failed Messiah, the "anti-Israel protest was to have drawn tens of thousands of haredim. Instead, it appears to have drawn about 5,000." Still, it was a formidable crowd, as you can see from this video.
The protest was peaceful and no arrests were reported, but one passerby tells us he witnessed protesters "shouting, spitting, and peeing on every corner." Anttendee Jacob Kornbluh, an Orthodox Jewish blogger, tells Newsday, "It was basically a protest against the Israel government's attempt to pass an IDF [Israel Defense Forces] draft bill, which calls for everyone to serve in the Army, even those students in yeshiva."
UPDATE: The passerby who shared his observations above emailed us with some additional details:
I was stuck in a cab with my fiancé for about 20 minutes. We decided to walk once we realized that we wouldn't be going anywhere soon.
We got out and started waking straight through the crowds since that was the fastest way downtown. They looked like they wanted to tear us apart. My fiancé was wearing summer shorts and we just got back from volunteering for the Big Apple BBQ wearing Big Bob Gibson's t-shirts covered in pork logos. It's like they could smell it on us.
I wish I was making this up, but we were scared for our lives. The main part of the rally was thousands deep and no one would make room for us to walk through. Many men sneered at my lady and crossed their arms at me in disgust, spit in our paths as we made our way upstream.
I saw a half dozen men synchronize-peeing on a wall, three others peeing in a phone booth, and a couple of kids scattered about peeing on the curbside of their mini vans.
