There is a place in Jerusalem where the confrontation with the state is not merely a dispute over military service, budgets or a particular law. In Mea Shearim, a hard-line anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox stream rejects the very idea of the State of Israel. In its worldview, Zionism is a sin, establishing Jewish sovereignty before the coming of the Messiah is forbidden, and Jews are supposed to continue living in exile until redemption arrives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week, that tension took a very practical form. During an enforcement operation by Jerusalem District Police, Border Police and municipal policing teams, seven Palestinians from the West Bank who were staying in Israel without permits were located and arrested at several work sites in the area. At the same time, a disturbance erupted, objects were thrown at the forces and 15 citations were issued for various offenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This conflict runs much deeper than a single clash with a police officer in the street. For parts of the anti-Zionist stream, the police are not merely a law-enforcement agency but an arm of a state whose very legitimacy they reject. That is why almost any police operation in the neighborhood can immediately acquire an ideological dimension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jerusalem District Police stated: “As part of a focused operation by Jerusalem District Police officers, Border Police fighters and municipal policing teams in the Mea Shearim neighborhood and surrounding area to strengthen governance and maintain public order, extensive enforcement activity was carried out. During the operation, a public disturbance developed in an attempt to disrupt enforcement, including objects being thrown at the forces operating at the scene.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is where the story stops being local. According to the Israel Democracy Institute’s 2025 Statistical Report on Haredi Society, Israel’s ultra-Orthodox population numbered about 1.45 million people, 14.3% of the population, compared with roughly 750,000 in 2009. Its annual growth rate since 2009 has been around 4.2%, and projections put the ultra-Orthodox share of Israel’s population at about 16% by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is no longer a small pressure group. It is a rapidly growing, very young and highly organized demographic bloc. Its expanding size is translating into increasing political weight as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes. In a political system where governments can rise or fall on just a handful of seats, organized ultra-Orthodox parties can make the difference between forming a coalition and sitting in opposition. For more than a decade, they have repeatedly served as crucial partners for Benjamin Netanyahu and provided his bloc with the numbers needed to build governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is the Jerusalem paradox in its starkest form: in Mea Shearim there is a stream that rejects the state, confronts its institutions and views Zionism as a religious deviation, while the broader ultra-Orthodox population keeps growing and gaining political strength. They may reject the state as most Israelis understand it – but ultra-Orthodox demographics could still decide who gets to run it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is a place in Jerusalem where the confrontation with the state is not merely a dispute over military service, budgets or a particular law. In Mea Shearim, a hard-line anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox stream rejects the very idea of the State of Israel. In its worldview, Zionism is a sin, establishing Jewish sovereignty before the coming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":184990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"9319","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,8730,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-8730","category-68"],"acf":{"subtitle":"The ultra-Orthodox stream in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim helps illegal Palestinian workers and is hostile to security forces - yet ultra-Orthodox demographics could determine who forms Israel's next government"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185086,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184989\/revisions\/185086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}