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David Vaaknin Photographer
During the summer of 2009, Jerusalem’s mayor had ordered the opening of a municipal parking lot during the sabbath (shabbes in Yiddish), a day in which conservative and orthodox Jews traditionally don’t light a fire, use electricity, work or drive.
The mayor’s decision sparked a series of protests and clashes in the following weeks, referred to in local media as the ‘Shabbat wars’ and pitted the city’s large and growing religious community against secular residents and local authorities.
The mayor’s decision sparked a series of protests and clashes in the following weeks, referred to in local media as the ‘Shabbat wars’ and pitted the city’s large and growing religious community against secular residents and local authorities.