It's National Equality Day, and protesters and counter-protesters in the Beit Vagan neighborhood of Jerusalem are throwing the word at each other like a thrown weapon, separated by a handful of police officers.
The former are part of the movement against the judicial reform of the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu and protest in front of a Talmudic school to focus on the exemption of the ultra-Orthodox from fulfilling the compulsory military service that they had to do.
Some wear military caps and chant slogans such as "Democracy" and "Equality for all."
The latter, both ultra-Orthodox and supporters of other formations of the right-wing coalition Executive, receive them with shouts such as "Leftists, traitors", "We defend you through the Torah" and "64 deputies", those brought together by Netanyahu's bloc.
Some throw water at them
― "Don't touch me", warns a secular protester to a religious young man who rebukes her closely.
― "I don't want to either", he answers, while a second warns him that he is profaning the name of God by getting so close to a woman.
Between one and the other they are barely a hundred, but the constant tension (they are very close to coming to blows) and the fact that they are quite even in number highlights how the protest around the judicial reform has brought to the surface the social gaps that have divided the country's Jews (secular-religious, center and periphery, Ashkenazi-Mizrahi...) for decades.
And it shows how the outrage that has mobilized hundreds of thousands of Israelis every week since last January is increasingly spilling over into other contentious and divisive issues, most notably the so-called "burden sharing," that is, the feeling of much of the Israelis that they sustain ―militarily and economically― the country.
The ultra-Orthodox are exempt from compulsory military service, generally 32 months for men and 24 for women.
They are also the group that most refuses to work, to dedicate themselves to religious activities, for which they receive subsidies.
They make up 13% of the country's population and, with almost seven children on average, they will be 32% in 2065, according to calculations by the Central Statistics Office.
“I'm not saying they have to serve like the rest, but they should do one or two years of substitute social service.
What cannot be allowed is that there is a group outside of collective responsibility and that benefits from the taxes that we pay”, says one of the protesters, Micha Weiss, 59, who hoists an Israeli flag, converted into a one of the symbols of the movement against judicial reform, which would give the Executive power unprecedented control over the Supreme Court, almost the only counterweight in its institutional system.
Weiss insists that the protest against the reform is "dynamic", so it must also cover this issue now that it can reach Parliament, and defends congregating in front of a religious school.
"You have to demonstrate where there is a problem, not where there is not [...
] I have an 18-year-old son who is going to the Army.
And what if he has to go to a crazy war, namely for a settlement, while they don't go? ”, He sums up.
In a roundabout in front, Amnon Avinadav does not stop chanting slogans against the protesters.
He is 45 years old and has come
expressly
from Tel Aviv.
"They are hypocrites," he says.
“If they really want equality, go ask Um El Fahem for it.
But they only want to go against the ultra-Orthodox because they hate them, ”he assures.
Um El Fahem is a city inhabited by Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, 20% of the population who -for different reasons- are also exempt from enlisting.
recruiting office
It was not the only manifestation of the day around the matter.
In Bnei Brak, the largest ultra-Orthodox town in the country, located near Tel Aviv and where there was already a protest last March, a "recruitment office" was set up.
“Gone are the days when one party serves the state, while funding Talmudic schools seeking to build a dictatorship based on Jewish law.
There is no democracy without equality”, the organizers pointed out in the previous days.
“A part of the Israeli
mainstream
is obsessed with forcing the ultra-Orthodox to be enlisted.
Even if the Army were heaven on earth, you can't take people there in chains [...] In the name of equality they try to force an entire community to do something they don't believe in," he criticized this Monday in the
Haaretz
newspaper
its columnist Odeh Bisharat, former secretary general of the communist-inspired Arab party Hadash.
Several mothers wear Israel Defense Forces berets during a protest against a military conscription bill that exempts ultra-Orthodox Jews, Thursday in Jerusalem.Maya Alleruzzo (AP)
The ultra-Orthodox are in the eye of the hurricane, but they did not participate in the large protest in defense of judicial reform last month.
And the parties that represent them are the ones that least publicly defend the coalition.
They support the initiative mainly so that the Supreme Court cannot overturn a clear exemption from enlistment by law.
Netanyahu paused the reform on March 27, pressured by the extent of the protests and after dismissing his defense minister, Yoav Galant, for distancing himself from the judicial reform.
He reinstated the minister and postponed the processing to the session that began this Monday and ends in July.
In this month of recess in the Knesset, the usual Saturday demonstrations against the reform have continued, while the government and opposition have negotiated, with little success, changes to the legal initiative, at the residence of the president, Isaac Herzog.
As parliamentary activity resumed, so have these other weekly protests on Thursdays.
These are days with small symbolic and very visual actions in different parts of the country, as well as demonstrations or the traditional blockade of the Ayalón highway, in Tel Aviv.
The problems of citizenship
This Thursday, not only the military issue has been on the table, but also others on the political agenda.
The organizers see it as part of a whole, considering that the Government has concentrated solely on moving forward with the judicial reform ―presented a week after taking office, at the end of December―, leaving aside the real problems of the citizenry.
For this reason, they have colored the water of a fountain in Tel Aviv to protest against the price of food.
They continue to rise, despite Netanyahu saying upon returning to power that lowering them would be his first fight.
They have also put stickers on cartons of milk in supermarkets to denounce the pact of the Executive ―which determines its price― with the producers, for which they grow by 9.2%.
There has also been an artistic
performance
in front of the house, in the Jewish settlement in the West Bank of Kiriat Arba, of the head of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, who came to power with a strong-armed speech against crime.
They used bloody mannequins to denounce the wave of homicides ―88 so far this year, double that of the same period in 2022, five of them only on Wednesday―, particularly among the Palestinian minority, which accounts for 77% of murders despite being a fifth of the population.
"Ben Gvir, work is too much for you" or "It's your turn, where are you?"
were some of the slogans.
In addition, there have been rallies outside the Rabbinate in defense of gender equality and a mock same-sex wedding (which is not legal in Israel) before the Tel Aviv District Court.
Dozens of others have gathered outside the home of a
drag
performer that was stoned last week.
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