Anti-occupation demonstrations are not the sort of events that typically draw ultra-Orthodox yeshiva boys.

So when Eli Bitan appeared this month on stage at a Tel Aviv rally marking the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War – his image looming on a large screen for many thousands to see – some people rubbed their eyes. Who was this graduate of the elite Ponevezh yeshiva wearing a white shirt and black skullcap who had infiltrated their secular space?