Not in Our Name: Religious Activism in Sheikh Jarrah

If you happened to walk past the tiny Othman Ibn-Affan street on a Friday evening, you might have been struck by a rather uncommon event: a large group of Palestinians of all ages and left-wing Israeli secular peace-activists gathered around a table on the porch, listening to young religious men and women reciting Kiddush. This anomaly is part of the ongoing activity of religious peace activists who form a small yet dominant part of the Solidarity movement in Sheikh Jarrah, a predominantly Arab neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. The recent eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah exposes not only the racism inherent in Israeli law but the ugliest side of Jewish religious life. Supported by the police force, and backed by a court ruling, kippah-clad Jewish settlers have entered the evicted houses and transformed the peaceful neighbourhood into a small-scale inferno for its non-Jewish residents. Backed by the Jerusalem police and reinforced by scores of young Shabab (adolescent Charedim, members of an ultra-Orthodox group, who stroll the streets, exempt from military service while officially enrolled in yeshivas), they smash car windows, slash tyres, harass women and children, and provoke fights.
For a growing number of young religious Jews like me, the behaviour of these ultra-Orthodox Jews constitutes a form of blasphemy. For us, attendance at the Friday demonstrations against the house evictions in Sheikh Jarrah has become like going to shul—a mitzvah and testimony to our belief that the Torah must be a source of life and morality, not death, violence and injustice. We stand alongside our secular left-wing friends, integrating traditional methods of protest with our own religious activities in a process that culminates in a uniquely Jewish expression of political and religious belief.

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