Protective Presence:
We took part in an activity organized by peace activist groups to maintain a presence in the narrow streets of the Old City on Jerusalem Day, ahead of the march that was scheduled for six in the evening. The intention was to be there to protect the few shops that remained open and residents who went out to attend to their affairs before the unruly and militant crowds of the far right would arrive in the afternoon.

We gathered at 11:00 near Damascus Gate and Herod’s Gate—about 200 activists—and split into groups of five each. At the organizers’ request, we did not initially wear organization shirts. My friend Ofra and I joined Keti from “Mothers Against Violence.” Inside the Old City, we met our friend Ronit Dahan-Ramati, who had joined many activists from “Standing Together.”

We stood at the corners of streets leading to the Western Wall—Al-Wad Street and parallel streets—and kept changing positions in coordination with the steering team. Marching through the streets were swaggering and loud hilltop youth, yeshiva students in white shirts with long tzitzit reaching their knees (a common marker among ultra-Orthodox groups associated with the settler right), and youth wearing knitted kippahs. There were provocative chants, obscene gestures, banging on the doors of closed shops, as well as circles of dancing and singing that blocked entire streets. Several activists were attacked despite the massive presence of police and border police. Journalists (two from Haaretz) were also attacked and violently driven away. Ronit reported to us that they, too, encountered violence directed at Palestinian shop owners.

A couple of yeshiva students initiated conversations and debates.  We learned, to our surprise (perhaps our ignorance), that Moses did not only receive the Torah and the Tablets at Mount Sinai, but also the entire body of the Oral Torah, which was passed down to the Sages through transmitters in every generation.

We also met a young religious woman, gentle in demeanor, with a baby in a stroller. She took a photo with us and said kind words: “I believe in Jerusalem Day, and I do not believe in violence.” We asked her where she lived, and it turned out she lived in the Muslim Quarter, near Herod’s Gate. Apparently, she does not consider taking over and settling in Palestinian homes to be an act of violence.

Toward around 3:00 p.m., the police began pushing and clearing the activists out, accusing us of being the cause of the violence. Most of the activists left the Old City, but those who managed to evade and remain continued to document and report. One activist was arrested.