“Unveiling Identity: The Palestinian Jews of Meah Shearim“

When Israeli police arrested two protestors at a monthly march against the state in the Meah Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem, accusing them of waving Palestinian flags and disturbing the peace, they made an unexpected discovery: members of the community carry their own identity cards. When asked for his state-issued identity card, one of the men instead showed the police a card written partly in Hebrew and partly in Arabic. The card displayed the words ’Palestinian Jew’ in Hebrew, Arabic, and English, against the background of the Palestinian flag, and was titled ’Certificate of the one who refuses to bow down’ – referencing the story of the Megillah, in which Mordechai refused to bow to the anti-Semite Haman. The card read: ’This certifies that [name] is a Jew who believes that the Torah governs his private life as well as political matters, and he is ready to stand up with self-sacrifice against any government calling itself Jewish that does not recognize the authority of our ho