Bystander blasted by water cannon during protest in Jerusalem

A passing woman was thrown several metres through the air after being hit in the back of the head by a powerful water cannon during a protest in Israel.

The woman was walking past a group of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men protesting conscription in Jerusalem on Sunday, when she was hit with a blast from a "skunk cannon".

The powerful hose disperses a foul-smelling liquid and is used by the Israel Defence Forces as a non-lethal but effective crowd dispersal weapon.

Video showed the protesters waving and shouting at the riot police after the woman was thrown face-first into the asphalt and the busy intersection.

The condition of the woman is not known.

The demonstrators only dispersed after prominent rabbi Shmuel Auerbach asked them to return to their yeshivas (religious schools), the Times of Israel reports.

The young men were protesting after 11 people were jailed for up to three months after dodging the draft.

The demonstration shut down trams in the city and caused traffic chaos.

Thirty-six protesters were arrested, Haaretz reports.

Military service is compulsory for young Jewish men and women in Israel, but the ultra-Orthodox sect has argued they should not be subject to the draft if they are studying in yeshivas.