Elli Wohlgelernter
Jerusalem Post
04-18-1997
On November 1, 1993, the day before the mayoral elections in Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert made a political deal with Agudat Yisrael-Degel Hatorah candidate Meir Porush: drop out of the race, and the haredim will be given widespread powers in an Olmert administration.
He did, Olmert won, and suddenly the haredim had gained unprecedented political muscle in Jerusalem.
Three weeks later, on Friday night, November 26, dozens of haredim demonstrated at the north Jerusalem intersection of Shmuel Hanavi and Bar-Ilan streets, only instead of just yelling "Shabbes, Shabbes" at passing motorists, they also threw stones for the first time.
It was the beginning of the battle for Bar-Ilan.
Now, three years later, it looks like the war is over. The High Court's ruling on Sunday that Transport Minister Yitzhak Levy could, under certain conditions, close the street to traffic has given the haredim the foothold they need to eventually close it down completely.
The idea at first seemed far-fetched: while some local haredi neighborhood streets had long been closed on Shabbat, such as those in Mea She'arim and Bayit Vegan in Jerusalem, or the entire religious town of Bnei Brak, Bar-Ilan Street was a major east-west thoroughfare, serving residents from all over Jerusalem. How could such a main traffic artery be closed?
But then one day it happened. It was only temporary, everyone said, but still it happened. It was June 1994, and Moshe Teitelbaum, the Satmar rebbe, was coming to the neighborhood for the dedication of a new yeshiva and staying for Shabbat. Tens of thousands were expected to join him.
Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said it was a one-time deal, and that the Eda Haredit, which had campaigned at City Hall for years to get the street closed, had so been informed.
"A hundred thousand people will be going to the rebbe's house near the street," Ben-Ruby said. "Once in a dozen years it's acceptable to close the street."
It was a precedent too good to ignore. Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, an activist in the Eda Haredit, said "the argument against closing the street has always been that there is nowhere to divert traffic. This will make it clear that traffic can be diverted elsewhere, and no tragedy will result."
A few days later, posters were put up calling for a demonstration that upcoming Shabbat afternoon. Hundreds of haredim rioted, rolling trash bins into the middle of Bar-Ilan and throwing stones at passing motorists. Eight demonstrators were detained, but police were able to keep the road open to traffic.
The following Shabbat, June 24, saw a new addition to the street spectacle: an anti-protest protest, led by Meretz city councilman Ornan Yekutieli, a long-standing militant proponent of secular rights.
How militant? He was quoted that week saying that drivers caught in "haredi mobs... should put their foot on the gas and flee, even if people are standing in front of them." United Torah Judaism MK Avraham Ravitz said Yekutieli's words amounted to "incitement to murder," and that "he should be jailed."
Until that week the Eda Haredit had not been involved in the demonstrations, which had been organized by an amorphous "Action Committee," but they decided after a meeting to join in the protests. Two haredim were arrested, and the small group of protesters led by Yekutieli were mostly ignored by the haredim.
But the battle was now in full force, and in September Olmert appointed a committee headed by Eliezer Strum to look into ways to solve the problem.
His recommendation a few months later was that Bar-Ilan Street be closed during prayer times, for 90 minutes at the start of Shabbat, on Shabbat morning from 7:30 to 11:30, and 105 minutes before the close of Shabbat. Traffic would be permitted at all other times.
With a committee now having been formed, it was time to show haredi strength in numbers, to let the politicians know how their political partners vote with their feet. On October 21, 1994, over 50,000 gathered for a demonstration that was almost entirely peaceful (only two haredim were detained, for throwing stones at a police car).
But the massive show of support also served to mobilize the opposition. In November, then-Labor MK Emanuel Zissmann initiated a bill in the Knesset designed to prevent local authorities from closing streets without permission from the Knesset's Interior Committee. "I declare that I, together with other MKs and residents of the city, will under no circumstances, even if we have to bring out masses of people to demonstrate, allow the city to be shut down and harm the fragile and delicate fabric of life in Jerusalem."
Meretz began holding regular weekly demonstrations on Friday afternoons. The first, by 150 protesters, saw 20 arrested, while passing motorists honked in support of the left-wing activists who were trying to block traffic. Police ticketed the honking drivers. The Meretz demonstrations continued for 10 weeks, after which they said they would wait for a decision by Olmert.
The haredim, too, continued to demonstrate week after week, with a larger crowd showing up depending on whether any political developments had occurred that week.
While the recommendations from the Strum committee were being decided, the state got in on the act: the Transport Ministry said it was not the city's decision to make but the government's, and they would make any determination over closure.
The municipal council nevertheless recommended that the Transport Ministry close Bar-Ilan, but minister Yisrael Kessar decided not to. In November, the street was again closed for a visitor, the Vishnitzer rebbe, Rabbi Moshe Hager, who was visiting from Bnei Brak. Police said, again, that it was a one-time-only closure.
WITH THE election of Binyamin Netanyahu last May, a religious coalition not unlike Olmert's took shape, and a new transport minister, Yitzhak Levy, was appointed from the National Religious Party.
For the haredim on Bar-Ilan Street, it was a gift from the political gods.
"I have no doubt that one of the first things Yitzhak Levy will do as transport minister will be to close Bar-Ilan Street on Shabbat and holidays," Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Haim Miller (United Torah Judaism) said, even before Levy was officially appointed.
Meretz, meanwhile, had petitioned the High Court of Justice to be allowed to march down the street, which the police had refused them permission to do, fearing a riot. In July the court agreed.
But President Ezer Weizman asked Meretz to postpone their march until a solution could be found, which they agreed to do. Nevertheless, violent clashes took place that Shabbat when 3,000 protesters showed up, throwing stones, bottles, vegetables and dirty diapers at police. Police used water cannons to disperse the protesters, who screamed "Nazis" at the policemen. Thirteen haredim were arrested, in what was described as the worst demonstration at the site.
Four days later, Levy told the Knesset that Bar-Ilan would be closed on Shabbat and holidays during prayer times beginning that Friday night, and the partial closure would remain in effect for four months, and then be reevaluated.
Immediately, two petitions were filed with the High Court of Justice asking for a temporary injunction against the partial closure, which the court issued.
The demonstrations continued to grow bigger and more violent throughout last summer, culminating on July 27 when over 150,000 haredim gathered for a mostly peaceful protest.
Three days later the High Court decided to hear four petitions over the road closing before a seven-judge panel; and the rabbinical leadership of the Eda Haredit issued a halachic ruling the next day forbidding stone-throwing or other acts of violence during Shabbat demonstrations.
Still looking for a solution that would benefit all, Mayor Olmert then proposed digging a multi-million-dollar tunnel to replace Bar-Ilan Street.
"We must find a solution that will provide an answer to the [haredi] residents, and those who are unwilling to give up their right to drive in the area on Shabbat," Olmert said. "There is no other solution than a road that will not disturb the haredim and will not infringe on the right of the secular population to travel - and that means digging a tunnel."
The High Court ruled in August that Bar-Ilan would remain open to traffic on Shabbat for the time being, but that a public commission will be set up to study the whole issue of traffic arrangements in the capital on Shabbat. This idea was accepted by the government, the secular petitioners and the haredi representatives alike.
Transport Minister Levy established the committee at the end of August, which was headed by Dr. Zvi Zameret, the director of the Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem. Other members included Prof. Galia Golan, Rabbi Zvi Weinman, Eliahu Hasson, Rabbi Shmuel Jakobovitz, Rabbi She'ar-Yashuv Cohen, Prof. Eliezer Schwei, and Prof. Daniel Sperber.
The committee proposed that for the present, Bar-Ilan Street be closed on Shabbat during synagogue services, and that when work on Highway 4 is completed, providing an alternate route, it be closed entirely on Shabbat.
The committee also recommended that the transportation needs of the secular community on Shabbat be taken into consideration.
The High Court of Justice then ruled this week, overturning Levy's decision that Bar-Ilan be closed to traffic during prayer times on Shabbat and holidays. But at the same time, a majority of the seven-justice panel said that if a solution could be found for the secular residents of the street and the neighborhoods that
border it, Levy's decision could stand.
A compromise is now being worked out, and it looks like at some point in the future Bar-Ilan will be closed down for most - or all - of Shabbat.
(BOX) Pessah cease-fire but the battle goes on
The Eda Haredit has agreed to a seven-day cease-fire in the fight over Bar-Ilan Street: The week of Pessah.
Eda Haredit activist Yehuda Meshi-Zahav said yesterday that a promise was made to police not to demonstrate over the holiday, after police said that officers would be prevented from being with their families if they had to man the streets at a demonstration.
Nevertheless, Meshi-Zahav said, "if there is no change after the holiday, we plan on holding on Erev Rosh Hodesh Iyar [May 6] one of the biggest demonstrations ever seen in this country." He said the demonstration had the approval of the Eda Haredit as well as all the leading rabbis, who will call on their followers to take to the streets.
The demonstrations are required to keep up the pressure, he said, because despite what the High Court ruled this week, "we don't know if we won - you can never be sure how it's going to come out from the bagatz. There hasn't been any difference on the ground, so from our perspective we can't stop the demonstrations."
Jerusalem City Councilman Ornan Yekutieli (Meretz), leader of the fight for secular rights, said that the court's overall decision to return the ruling back to Transport Minister Yitzhak Levy "was unreasonable, when you know that the minister of transport is Orthodox, and he does what he does by what he thinks God wants him to do. He doesn't take into consideration either transportation issues or the future of Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel and not just the holy city. So he'll be looking very strongly how to close the road during prayer hours as fast as possible."
The one silver lining in the court's ruling, he said, was that they set one condition: "That there will be no violence.
"They said that very clearly. If secular cars will start being attacked during hours when the road is open, and cars will be damaged, then within 24 hours we will be back in court with the fact that the condition was not respected. We're going to start testing the High Court of Justice to see if they meant what they said."
Copyright 1997 Jerusalem Post. All Rights Reserved
Have the haredim won the battle for Bar-Ilan?Elli Wohlgelernter
Jerusalem Post
04-18-1997
On November 1, 1993, the day before the mayoral elections in Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert made a political deal with Agudat Yisrael-Degel Hatorah candidate Meir Porush: drop out of the race, and the haredim will be given widespread powers in an Olmert administration.
He did, Olmert won, and suddenly the haredim had gained unprecedented political muscle in Jerusalem.
Three weeks later, on Friday night, November 26, dozens of haredim demonstrated at the north Jerusalem intersection of Shmuel Hanavi and Bar-Ilan streets, only instead of just yelling "Shabbes, Shabbes" at passing motorists, they also threw stones for the first time.
It was the beginning of the battle for Bar-Ilan.
Now, three years later, it looks like the war is over. The High Court's ruling on Sunday that Transport Minister Yitzhak Levy could, under certain conditions, close the street to traffic has given the haredim the foothold they need to eventually close it down completely.
The idea at first seemed far-fetched: while some local haredi neighborhood streets had long been closed on Shabbat, such as those in Mea She'arim and Bayit Vegan in Jerusalem, or the entire religious town of Bnei Brak, Bar-Ilan Street was a major east-west thoroughfare, serving residents from all over Jerusalem. How could such a main traffic artery be closed?
But then one day it happened. It was only temporary, everyone said, but still it happened. It was June 1994, and Moshe Teitelbaum, the Satmar rebbe, was coming to the neighborhood for the dedication of a new yeshiva and staying for Shabbat. Tens of thousands were expected to join him.
Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said it was a one-time deal, and that the Eda Haredit, which had campaigned at City Hall for years to get the street closed, had so been informed.
"A hundred thousand people will be going to the rebbe's house near the street," Ben-Ruby said. "Once in a dozen years it's acceptable to close the street."
It was a precedent too good to ignore. Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, an activist in the Eda Haredit, said "the argument against closing the street has always been that there is nowhere to divert traffic. This will make it clear that traffic can be diverted elsewhere, and no tragedy will result."
A few days later, posters were put up calling for a demonstration that upcoming Shabbat afternoon. Hundreds of haredim rioted, rolling trash bins into the middle of Bar-Ilan and throwing stones at passing motorists. Eight demonstrators were detained, but police were able to keep the road open to traffic.
The following Shabbat, June 24, saw a new addition to the street spectacle: an anti-protest protest, led by Meretz city councilman Ornan Yekutieli, a long-standing militant proponent of secular rights.
How militant? He was quoted that week saying that drivers caught in "haredi mobs... should put their foot on the gas and flee, even if people are standing in front of them." United Torah Judaism MK Avraham Ravitz said Yekutieli's words amounted to "incitement to murder," and that "he should be jailed."
Until that week the Eda Haredit had not been involved in the demonstrations, which had been organized by an amorphous "Action Committee," but they decided after a meeting to join in the protests. Two haredim were arrested, and the small group of protesters led by Yekutieli were mostly ignored by the haredim.
But the battle was now in full force, and in September Olmert appointed a committee headed by Eliezer Strum to look into ways to solve the problem.
His recommendation a few months later was that Bar-Ilan Street be closed during prayer times, for 90 minutes at the start of Shabbat, on Shabbat morning from 7:30 to 11:30, and 105 minutes before the close of Shabbat. Traffic would be permitted at all other times.
With a committee now having been formed, it was time to show haredi strength in numbers, to let the politicians know how their political partners vote with their feet. On October 21, 1994, over 50,000 gathered for a demonstration that was almost entirely peaceful (only two haredim were detained, for throwing stones at a police car).
But the massive show of support also served to mobilize the opposition. In November, then-Labor MK Emanuel Zissmann initiated a bill in the Knesset designed to prevent local authorities from closing streets without permission from the Knesset's Interior Committee. "I declare that I, together with other MKs and residents of the city, will under no circumstances, even if we have to bring out masses of people to demonstrate, allow the city to be shut down and harm the fragile and delicate fabric of life in Jerusalem."
Meretz began holding regular weekly demonstrations on Friday afternoons. The first, by 150 protesters, saw 20 arrested, while passing motorists honked in support of the left-wing activists who were trying to block traffic. Police ticketed the honking drivers. The Meretz demonstrations continued for 10 weeks, after which they said they would wait for a decision by Olmert.
The haredim, too, continued to demonstrate week after week, with a larger crowd showing up depending on whether any political developments had occurred that week.
While the recommendations from the Strum committee were being decided, the state got in on the act: the Transport Ministry said it was not the city's decision to make but the government's, and they would make any determination over closure.
The municipal council nevertheless recommended that the Transport Ministry close Bar-Ilan, but minister Yisrael Kessar decided not to. In November, the street was again closed for a visitor, the Vishnitzer rebbe, Rabbi Moshe Hager, who was visiting from Bnei Brak. Police said, again, that it was a one-time-only closure.
WITH THE election of Binyamin Netanyahu last May, a religious coalition not unlike Olmert's took shape, and a new transport minister, Yitzhak Levy, was appointed from the National Religious Party.
For the haredim on Bar-Ilan Street, it was a gift from the political gods.
"I have no doubt that one of the first things Yitzhak Levy will do as transport minister will be to close Bar-Ilan Street on Shabbat and holidays," Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Haim Miller (United Torah Judaism) said, even before Levy was officially appointed.
Meretz, meanwhile, had petitioned the High Court of Justice to be allowed to march down the street, which the police had refused them permission to do, fearing a riot. In July the court agreed.
But President Ezer Weizman asked Meretz to postpone their march until a solution could be found, which they agreed to do. Nevertheless, violent clashes took place that Shabbat when 3,000 protesters showed up, throwing stones, bottles, vegetables and dirty diapers at police. Police used water cannons to disperse the protesters, who screamed "Nazis" at the policemen. Thirteen haredim were arrested, in what was described as the worst demonstration at the site.
Four days later, Levy told the Knesset that Bar-Ilan would be closed on Shabbat and holidays during prayer times beginning that Friday night, and the partial closure would remain in effect for four months, and then be reevaluated.
Immediately, two petitions were filed with the High Court of Justice asking for a temporary injunction against the partial closure, which the court issued.
The demonstrations continued to grow bigger and more violent throughout last summer, culminating on July 27 when over 150,000 haredim gathered for a mostly peaceful protest.
Three days later the High Court decided to hear four petitions over the road closing before a seven-judge panel; and the rabbinical leadership of the Eda Haredit issued a halachic ruling the next day forbidding stone-throwing or other acts of violence during Shabbat demonstrations.
Still looking for a solution that would benefit all, Mayor Olmert then proposed digging a multi-million-dollar tunnel to replace Bar-Ilan Street.
"We must find a solution that will provide an answer to the [haredi] residents, and those who are unwilling to give up their right to drive in the area on Shabbat," Olmert said. "There is no other solution than a road that will not disturb the haredim and will not infringe on the right of the secular population to travel - and that means digging a tunnel."
The High Court ruled in August that Bar-Ilan would remain open to traffic on Shabbat for the time being, but that a public commission will be set up to study the whole issue of traffic arrangements in the capital on Shabbat. This idea was accepted by the government, the secular petitioners and the haredi representatives alike.
Transport Minister Levy established the committee at the end of August, which was headed by Dr. Zvi Zameret, the director of the Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem. Other members included Prof. Galia Golan, Rabbi Zvi Weinman, Eliahu Hasson, Rabbi Shmuel Jakobovitz, Rabbi She'ar-Yashuv Cohen, Prof. Eliezer Schwei, and Prof. Daniel Sperber.
The committee proposed that for the present, Bar-Ilan Street be closed on Shabbat during synagogue services, and that when work on Highway 4 is completed, providing an alternate route, it be closed entirely on Shabbat.
The committee also recommended that the transportation needs of the secular community on Shabbat be taken into consideration.
The High Court of Justice then ruled this week, overturning Levy's decision that Bar-Ilan be closed to traffic during prayer times on Shabbat and holidays. But at the same time, a majority of the seven-justice panel said that if a solution could be found for the secular residents of the street and the neighborhoods that
border it, Levy's decision could stand.
A compromise is now being worked out, and it looks like at some point in the future Bar-Ilan will be closed down for most - or all - of Shabbat.
(BOX) Pessah cease-fire but the battle goes on
The Eda Haredit has agreed to a seven-day cease-fire in the fight over Bar-Ilan Street: The week of Pessah.
Eda Haredit activist Yehuda Meshi-Zahav said yesterday that a promise was made to police not to demonstrate over the holiday, after police said that officers would be prevented from being with their families if they had to man the streets at a demonstration.
Nevertheless, Meshi-Zahav said, "if there is no change after the holiday, we plan on holding on Erev Rosh Hodesh Iyar [May 6] one of the biggest demonstrations ever seen in this country." He said the demonstration had the approval of the Eda Haredit as well as all the leading rabbis, who will call on their followers to take to the streets.
The demonstrations are required to keep up the pressure, he said, because despite what the High Court ruled this week, "we don't know if we won - you can never be sure how it's going to come out from the bagatz. There hasn't been any difference on the ground, so from our perspective we can't stop the demonstrations."
Jerusalem City Councilman Ornan Yekutieli (Meretz), leader of the fight for secular rights, said that the court's overall decision to return the ruling back to Transport Minister Yitzhak Levy "was unreasonable, when you know that the minister of transport is Orthodox, and he does what he does by what he thinks God wants him to do. He doesn't take into consideration either transportation issues or the future of Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel and not just the holy city. So he'll be looking very strongly how to close the road during prayer hours as fast as possible."
The one silver lining in the court's ruling, he said, was that they set one condition: "That there will be no violence.
"They said that very clearly. If secular cars will start being attacked during hours when the road is open, and cars will be damaged, then within 24 hours we will be back in court with the fact that the condition was not respected. We're going to start testing the High Court of Justice to see if they meant what they said."
Copyright 1997 Jerusalem Post. All Rights Reserved
