(Religious War) Stickers (Jerusalem)

Memorial stickers and flyers of dead soldiers are all over Israel. In Jerusalem, there is a predominance of religious messaging. I took these photos outside the Yitzhak Navon Train Station in early August. “Don’t touch our soldiers,” Know what we’re fighting for: expecting and preparing for the construction of the Temple,” “seeing redemption,” “No coexistence with them, Transfer now,” “Until victory,” “Why? Because it’s necessary,” “Bibi is weak in the face of Hamas, Likud is left,” “Not Area A, Not Area B, not Area C/ All the the Land of Israel is mine.” They express the values of the Religious Zionist community in Israel. Reports speak to the disproportionate number of soldiers from West Bank settlements fighting and dying in Gaza. But for what purpose? Will it all have been in vain. The signs in Jerusalem are saturated by religion. There is a lot of talk about what for this community was the trauma of the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza. One can only imagine the order of trauma and disillusion and rage this community will face when one day the war ends, Israel leaves Gaza without the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian civilian population, without building a single settlement.

About zjb

Zachary Braiterman is Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion at Syracuse University. His specialization is modern Jewish thought and philosophical aesthetics. http://religion.syr.edu
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