For one evening, Jerusalem tried to look like America. On Saturday night, the Old City walls and the Chords Bridge were illuminated in red, white and blue, the colors of the United States flag, marking 250 years of American independence. On the ancient stones and on one of the city’s most recognizable entrance landmarks, Jerusalem projected the colors of friendship, freedom and democracy.
But that same weekend in Jerusalem also told a very different story. Before the lights went on Saturday night, unrest had already broken out on Saturday afternoon on Agrippas Street, after large groups of ultra-Orthodox protesters gathered and disrupted the activity of a new cafe operating on Shabbat. The gap between the U.S. flag on the walls of Jerusalem and the street battle against a business open on Shabbat may be one of the clearest Jerusalem stories of this period.
Can Jerusalem Really Celebrate American Freedom?
The Jerusalem Municipality illuminated the Old City walls and the Chords Bridge on Saturday night, July 4, in the colors of the U.S. flag, marking 250 years since American independence. According to the municipality, the lighting was a gesture of friendship and appreciation for the close and lasting bond between the two countries, and between Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, and the American people.
The Old City walls and the Chords Bridge, two of Jerusalem’s most prominent symbols, became for one evening a colorful screen of flags, lights and international symbolism. Yet the celebration could not blur the city’s political and social reality: for about 20 years, the most dominant forces in nearly every Jerusalem election have been the ultra-Orthodox parties and right-wing parties.
What Happened at the Cafe on Agrippas Street?
On Saturday afternoon, before the city’s official lighting ceremony, large groups of ultra-Orthodox protesters gathered around a new cafe on Agrippas Street that operates on Shabbat. For many in Jerusalem’s liberal public, the scene was another sign of a broader trend: a continued attempt to push a freer, more open and more secular lifestyle out of central parts of the city.
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion was elected in recent terms on the basis of a strong political bloc in which ultra-Orthodox voters carry decisive weight. These voters, as well as some of the political forces around them, do not believe in a liberal approach to urban life, but rather in a conservative, modest, more closed and at times separatist way of life. That is why, when Jerusalem lights up its symbols in American colors, the question is not only what is projected on the walls, but what happens on the sidewalks beneath them.
Why Does the U.S. Flag Look Different in Jerusalem?
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion noted: “Jerusalem is proud to mark the 250th Independence Day of the United States, the close and important friend of the State of Israel. This gesture expresses deep appreciation for the long-standing partnership between the countries, based on shared values of freedom and democracy”.
Lion added: “We wish the American people a happy Independence Day and look forward to continuing to strengthen the ties between Jerusalem and our great friend, the United States”.
Those sentences sound festive, but in Jerusalem they carry a more complex meaning. The city can light its walls in the colors of the U.S. flag, but it cannot hide the basic question: is it truly prepared to live by values of freedom, openness and democracy when they reach a cafe open on Shabbat on Agrippas Street?
