Just days ago, crowds pressed around Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda Market. Hands were raised, phones recorded every moment, and enthusiastic chants filled the streets. Yet photographs taken at the market this past Shabbat reveal a completely different reality: nearly deserted alleyways, shuttered stalls, locked metal storefronts, and an overwhelming silence across one of Jerusalem’s most recognizable centers of urban life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mahane Yehuda comes alive at night and on weekends, particularly in the surrounding entertainment areas. On Shabbat itself, however, most of its commercial activity comes to an almost complete standstill. Some see this as an expression of tradition and the weekly day of rest. For residents who want an active, accessible city on Shabbat, the same scene represents a much more restricted urban reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The contrast between Netanyahu’s enthusiastic reception and the empty streets is more than visual. It brings Jerusalem’s balance of power back into focus: a city where Likud and the ultra-Orthodox parties enjoy deep political support, while disputes over military conscription, religious freedom, and everyday lifestyles continue to intensify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The results of the 2022 Knesset elections illustrate the city’s political landscape. United Torah Judaism received 23.8% of the votes cast in Jerusalem, Likud 19.11%, and Shas 18.3%. Together, these three parties secured more than 61% of the valid votes. According to the Israel Democracy Institute, the combined share of votes for Shas and United Torah Judaism in the city nearly doubled over three decades, rising from 22% in 1992 to approximately 42% in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These figures have implications extending far beyond the ballot box. As the electoral weight of conservative and ultra-Orthodox communities grows, so does their influence over public debates concerning Shabbat, education, military service, and the character of shared public spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The military conscription issue sharpens the contradiction. Jerusalem is home to Israelis serving in the Israel Defense Forces, including reservists carrying a prolonged burden of service, alongside ultra-Orthodox communities in which large segments oppose the conscription of yeshiva students. Despite an increase in ultra-Orthodox enlistment, the gap remains substantial. According to IDF figures, 4,298 ultra-Orthodox men enlisted during the recruitment year ending in June 2026, compared with an estimated annual cohort of approximately 14,000 potential recruits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the most revealing examples of the struggle over Jerusalem’s identity unfolded at a small caf\u00e9 in the Nachlaot neighborhood, near Mahane Yehuda Market. For approximately two months, Caf\u00e9 BaSimta, which operated on Shabbat, became the focus of ultra-Orthodox demonstrations, confrontations with customers, and protests against its opening on the Jewish day of rest. Opposition to the religious identity of its operators, who are associated with Messianic Judaism, also played a role, although the dispute centered in part on the caf\u00e9’s decision to operate on Shabbat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The incidents went beyond verbal protests. Reports described property damage, blocked entrances, and glue inserted into the establishment’s lock. Eventually, in early September, management announced that the caf\u00e9 would cease operating on Shabbat, having concluded that continuing to open exposed the business to confrontation and danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Critics of the decision viewed it as a troubling precedent: a business serving willing customers was pushed to suspend its Shabbat operations following sustained pressure. The Hitorerut movement subsequently attempted to operate a coffee cart at the location on Shabbat, but municipal inspectors ordered its removal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the perspective of those seeking to preserve Shabbat observance, however, the dispute concerns the protection of Jerusalem’s religious character. The disagreement extends beyond a cup of coffee to a fundamental question: can the freedom to choose how to spend Shabbat coexist with the religious way of life in neighboring communities?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jerusalem is not exclusively an ultra-Orthodox city. It is home to secular Jews, traditional Jews, religious Zionists, Arabs, and numerous other communities. Yet the photographs from Mahane Yehuda illustrate the contrast between a city capable of filling its streets with crowds for a political event and a public sphere that largely shuts down on Shabbat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Netanyahu can visit the market and receive an enthusiastic welcome. But the question remaining after the crowds disperse is not merely which parties Jerusalem’s residents vote for. It is what kind of city they want to sustain, and how much room remains for those who choose to live differently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just days ago, crowds pressed around Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda Market. Hands were raised, phones recorded every moment, and enthusiastic chants filled the streets. Yet photographs taken at the market this past Shabbat reveal a completely different reality: nearly deserted alleyways, shuttered stalls, locked metal storefronts, and an overwhelming silence across […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":186118,"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-186117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-8730","category-68"],"acf":{"subtitle":"Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda Market filled with Netanyahu supporters, but on Shabbat the shutters were closed and the silence returned. Between the ultra-Orthodox military draft crisis and the closure of caf\u00e9s, a troubling question emerges: who really determines the city's character?"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186117","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\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186120,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186117\/revisions\/186120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}