The extreme change in cities: "This neighborhood will be fully Haredi. The secular who fight will leave"
In Bnei Brak, they have moved from blocking a street in a mixed neighborhood to a total ban on entry with dumpsters - and in pashkevilim (posters) they rule: "It is forbidden to rent to secular people". In Safed, people arrive from other cities for protests against buses that do not even pass through the city, and in Jerusalem, the entrance to the capital has been blocked. Residents facing these changes express despair and are considering leaving.
Jerusalem, Saturday, about an hour before the end of the Sabbath. Dozens of Haredim are blocking buses that arrived from the north to the capital with iron barriers, a regular move - as part of the long-standing status quo. Hours before that, protests at a cafe in an alley, and far from there, in another city - Safed - battles over the operation of bus shuttles for soldiers and civilians. The evening before, iron barriers at the entrance to a mixed neighborhood, where secular and Haredi live together in Bnei Brak. In 24 hours, Haredim are trying to change a practice of years, in the name of the Sabbath, and in complete disregard for the wishes of others. And there are those who have despaired, or are fed up.
Bnei Brak: The struggle for the "Soferim Complex"
Friday evening, with the onset of the Sabbath. Bnei Brak police officers are summoned by residents of the secular "Soferim Complex" (Ayelet HaShachar) neighborhood, who reported the blocking of the main entrance road to the neighborhood with construction waste dumpsters. The police arrived at the scene and cleared the dumpsters from the center of the road, and the bridge was opened. The truck driver who placed the construction waste dumpsters was summoned for questioning, during which, according to a police source, he said that the work was ordered by a factor in the Bnei Brak municipality - and as far as he was concerned, he thought everything was proper and allowed.
Saturday morning, 10:30. A Haredi wrapped in a tallit returns from morning prayer, on the way from the Pardes Katz neighborhood in Bnei Brak - and goes up to the Landau Bridge, which leads to the "Soferim Complex" neighborhood. And then he mutters towards the vehicle standing on the side: "It is forbidden to drive here on the Sabbath". At the beginning of the bridge, he passes a "No entry on Sabbaths and Jewish holidays" sign placed on a pole. On the bridge, the three dumpsters, attached to the sidewalk, are evidence of their placement with the onset of the Sabbath to physically block the travel on the bridge leading to the neighborhood.
The "Soferim Complex" neighborhood is bounded by the Ayalon Mall on the west and Highway 4 on the east. It was built as a "Price for the Occupant" project, and at a bargain price - young secular and Haredi couples - won an apartment and found themselves living together. The Haredim are the majority in the neighborhood, which does not radiate freshness and cleanliness despite the fact that it only began to be populated in 2024.
Safed: "Whoever desecrates the Sabbath deserves stoning"
"Everyone who desecrates the Sabbath does not belong to the people of Israel", screams one of the police detainees at the Egged square in Safed, where for 11 consecutive Sabbaths a religious war has been taking place between Haredim and secular around buses that leave shortly before the end of the Sabbath from the central station towards the center, without entering the city. "Everyone who desecrates the Sabbath deserves stoning", he continues. "When the Creator of the world comes and gives the punishment to all the desecrators of the Sabbath, do not be surprised after that that it happens on Simchat Torah. Sabbath desecrators betray the Holy One, Blessed be He. There is no permission in any way to desecrate the Sabbath. Whoever desecrates the Sabbath risks the death penalty from the Creator of the world".
