Israeli women's rights activists march on ultra-Orthodox Bnei Brak

Protesters began marching from Ramat Gan’s Ayalon Mall towards the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak on Thursday night, according to Hebrew media.

The protest was organized by women's protest organizations and is intended as a counter-push to what they see as efforts to make Israel more religious and less equal.

The protest march was approved earlier in the day by the police.

During the day, protesters appeared in Bnei Brak to face off against counter-protesters who held signs with messages such as, "The world cannot exist without the Torah".

Police announced that several streets would be blocked off to traffic in the ultra-religious city between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Previously, citing reasons such as that protests would only serve to further escalate tensions and result in conflicts, officials have refused to approve protests in Bnei Brak.

Maariv reported that women's organizations that announced the march sent out a message that said:

"They want to throw us into the back seat of the bus, they demand that our daughters cover up, they fired all the women who were CEOs of government offices, they want only us to be anxious mothers to serving soldiers."

The message further stated: "They want to take the women back hundreds of years. Whoever thinks that we will let them humiliate women and girls, whoever thinks that they will succeed in excluding women from the public sphere and from positions of influence - is not only wrong but will meet us on the streets."

The protest is being broadcast from the YouTube channel "SATVIEW10."

The left-wing activist organization, Standing Together noted that they concurrently initiated a women's solidarity conference in Beni Brak. More than 100 ultra-Orthodox, secular and Arab women attended. 

"Tonight we made history," the organizers of the conference stated. "We brought ultra-Orthodox, Arab, and secular women to the heart of Bnei Brak to talk about feminism and prove that there is a place for all of them and that it is possible to do politics differently."

"In the days when Israeli society is torn and divided," the statement added, "we have to do everything to stand together, shoulder to shoulder, and fight for our shared values."

Michael Starr contributed to this report.