As far as I know history - and I do - this is the first time since the establishment of the State of Israel that the anthem "Hatikva" was played in Shabbat Square and the Mea Shearim neighborhood!
This happened yesterday evening, in an impressive demonstration of skinheads from across the country, who arrived with giant Israeli flags under heavy police cover, marched through the streets of the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem, and stood for about an hour in a defiant demonstration in Shabbat Square, with blatant calls to the neighborhood's youth and the entire ultra-Orthodox public - to get under the stretcher and assimilate into the IDF's 'melting pot'.
Want more news, videos and stories? Join the Haredim 10 WhatsApp channel >>
I don't know how, but by private providence I found myself in an event. From the far north I arrived in Jerusalem, and I am in the midst of the great turmoil and cauldron.
It can be said that the residents of the neighborhood reacted with astonishment and shock to the act of 'brothers in arms.' They are not used to such displays of defiance. This has not happened before, and this is a precedent, the first time something like this has happened and with such force.
From my objective perspective, it was an 'event' in the neighborhood. In the event itself, I did not see hatred, I did not see malice and enmity. I am not naive and I do not delude myself that the men and women of 'Brothers in Arms', with their shaved heads and tails, came innocently to convince the residents of Mea Shearim to enlist in the army. It is clear to me that they do not want the striped young men, the women of the Shevis - in 'their' army. They want them 'to be like them', to go through the 'melting pot'.
But I must not deny what I saw in my eyes and my feeling. I did not see hatred in her eyes, I did not see malice.
I later saw those same shaved-headed fighters as individuals in the neighborhoods of Jerusalem, on Jaffa Street, in the Mahane Yehuda market, at the central station, on the train and on the buses, very nice people, in person. I even saw help and smiles for people with religious and haredi looks, for women with strollers, a smile from side to side. I did not see hatred.
•
From the Haredi side, I saw a collection of all kinds of young people, in age and opinion, sitting on the sidelines, gathered around, some active and most curious: What is this production that has befallen them in the middle of life?! Who are these who are provoking us? Who are these who are ostracized from every form and image of Torah and religion-observant, who are the ones who put up giant Israeli flags in Haredi neighborhoods, sing alienated songs, beat drums and cheer on trumpets - what is this foreign and strange thing?!...
Some tried to confront them. I saw eggs thrown in their direction, I saw excited young men trying to confront them. I also saw excited young men protesting with serious expressions and their hearts filled with anger at the entry of impure and strangers into the camp of those who fear God.
I spoke with relatives and people in the neighborhood, men and women, young and old. For the first time, they learned about what was happening with the High Court, the cancellation of the yeshiva deferral procedure, and the chaos that is going on in Israeli society.
They have not yet been exposed to this, they do not consume media, neither television nor radio, nor the Internet, nor newspapers nor tweeters. They were afraid: Where do we go from here? What will happen? – Netzach Israel will not lie!
Just like that in the background: there is a war, people are falling on the front lines, more widows and orphans are added, devastated and grieving bereaved families; there are kidnapped people who sit for 178 days in darkness and the shadow of death; there are dramas in the Knesset, in the courtroom, in the government, in Israeli society, "around the abyss of the storm" - as the Palmach anthem says, or as the prophet Jeremiah said: "Behold, the storm of the Lord, the heat has gone out and the storm is raging.".
