Settlers continue on their merry way

I was given the following flyer a few nights ago in Jerusalem during a pro-settler rally:

This coming Saturday night, join hundreds, if not thousands, of hardline supporters of the “settlement” movement who will camp out on a hilltop near “Kfar Tapuach” in the Shomrom to take part in a unique, all-night music festival that features some of Israel’s top recording artists, such as Sinai Tor, Dov Shurin, Aaron Razel and Binny Landau.

But more important than being the first of its kind event in the region, perhaps, is the pointed message of defiance that organisers intend to transmit to American President Obama and an increasingly hostile international community through the festival.

Signs advertising the event shout: “Faith in God – not Obama! Yes to the hilltops and Temple Mount, No to Capitol Hill”, and appear replete with pictures of the Beth Hamikdash hovering over the White House. Organisers intend to close the event with prayers at dawn and a convoy to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, passing through several newly established hilltops along the way.

Tapuach’s Woodstock

Born out of Tapuach’s weekly Melaveh Malka concert series, this first, all-night “Mikdash Festival” will be the tool that galvanises the protest movement in the same way that Woodstock did for America’s hippie generation in the 1960s, say organisers.

“During these days of intense pressure upon Israel to freeze all building and stifle all Jewish life in Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem, it’s only fitting to respond with an event that brings tens of thousands of proud Jews together to gather strength and encouragement from one another and prepare for the struggle ahead”, says Moshe Kahn, one of the organisers and an attendee of the original Woodstock event on Max Yazgur’s farm in 1969. “Music alone has the strength to accomplish that”.

UPDATE: A reader has told me that this flyer may be satirical or a fake (though the event certainly happened.) Watch this space.

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

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