Borders have been redrawn in Jerusalem. Friday, April 23, the day after a march by racist and violent Jewish activists, carried out in the center with cries of “Death to the Arabs”, the limits were drawn again between Jewish and Arab towns in a foul odor, residue of the dirty water cannons used by the police. Arabs avoid the shopping streets of downtown Jewish quarters. Geoulah’s ultra-Orthodox youth are reluctant to cross Route 60, which follows the 1949 armistice line, the famous “green line”. To the south, the “forest of peace”, an eminently mixed, is deserted.
This is no small accomplishment for a few hundred radicals, led by Lehava (“flame” in Hebrew), an organization born out of the Jewish supremacist nebula inspired by Rabbi Meir Kahane (1932-1990), which campaigns against marriages. between Arab and Jewish Israeli citizens. In particular, it recruits from among the rebels of the ultra-Orthodox world, deserters from religious schools from poor Sephardic families.
On that violent night Thursday, 105 Palestinians were injured, according to the Red Crescent, and 22 hospitalized, most of them hit by metal bullets surrounded by rubber and stun grenades fired by the police. They strove to maintain a no man’s land between the Old Arab City and these very mobile Jewish activists. A Jewish motorist was also slightly injured by young Palestinians, as well as a policeman by a stone throw. At least 50 people, Arabs and Jews, were held in Jerusalem police stations on Friday.
Ratonnades
Lehava walked for “Restore Jewish dignity”, using the pretext of videos posted on the social network TikTok this week: slaps, throwing stones and a cup of coffee poured by Arabs on ultra-Orthodox Jews near the Damascus gate, which opens onto the Old City. Young Palestinians have been defying the police there since the start of Ramadan on April 12. Violence was guaranteed as soon as Lehava’s demand for a demonstration was filed, but Israeli law, in American style, defends a broad conception of freedom of expression.
Gathered at the Place de Sion, these young people remained surrounded for a time by police officers mounted on horseback and harnessed, calm under the throwing of bottles and insults. Then they walked towards the Damascus Gate. The security forces had unceremoniously dispersed young Palestinians there, in order to prevent the two groups from meeting.
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