Israel is in a state of perpetual protest. Few other democracies have experienced so many fronts of discontent in recent years: hundreds of thousands on the streets, spontaneous sit-ins, burning barricades, rallies from both left and right. Sometimes it’s about the hostages in the Gaza Strip, sometimes the judicial reform, sometimes the war, sometimes the conscription of the ultra-Orthodox. The diversity of protests not only reveals tensions; it is the expression of a nation living in a permanent state of emergency, between politics, society, and security. The Bible already depicts Israel not as a harmonious people, but as one that wrestles incessantly—with God, with itself, with the nations around it. Jacob is named “Israel,” “for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” Israel’s permanent protest culture is thus not just a problem, but part of its identity. Israel is a people that wrestles and thereby lives.
In 2023, protests against the...
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