Flouting wartime restrictions, revelers party in Jerusalem streets for Purim’s final hours

Thousands of revelers partied in Jerusalem for the final hours of Purim Wednesday night, flouting the army’s wartime restrictions barring public gatherings as Iran continued to launch missiles toward the country.

While festivities went on throughout the capital, a street party that began around noon in the bohemian neighborhood of Nahlaot attracted hundreds, if not thousands, of costumed celebrants. The unruly crowd dispersed around 10:30 p.m., after several failed attempts by police.

“It’s kind of surreal. We’re being bombarded by Iran with giant ballistic missiles, public gatherings are banned, but at the same time, there are these massive street parties. They just can’t keep people down,” said Dov, a city resident who came to partake in the festivities.

The revelers, mostly half-drunk teenagers and 20-somethings, seemed entirely unconcerned about the threat of Iranian missile fire. Many expressed open disdain for the police and Home Front Command, insisting that they had no need for a bomb shelter when God was watching over them.

“They’re destroying the joy of Purim,” complained Chaim Ukshi, an 18-year-old from Bnei Brak, who comes to Jerusalem every year for the holiday. “Whoever is destined to die will die, even if he’s in a shelter. We’ve seen the shelters don’t work; in Beit Shemesh of all places, a missile hit and killed people,” he said.

Even though shelters are not built to withstand a direct hit from a ballistic missile, they provide much-needed protection from potentially lethal shockwaves.

The celebration also took on a markedly nationalist character, perhaps in part because the holiday, which focuses on the Jews’ victory against their persecutor Haman in ancient Persia, fell amid war with Iran. Inebriated revelers shouted, “The eternal nation is not afraid of a long journey.”

Many attendees dressed up as US President Donald Trump. One of those in costume held up a fake missile, on which it was written: “You’re fired! Direction: Tehran.”

The war with Iran did not explain why, however, the crowd broke out into the anti-Arab refrain “May your village burn” in the middle of the street.

Though most of the Jewish world celebrated Purim a day earlier, Jerusalem and other cities that were surrounded by walls in biblical times marked the holiday from Tuesday to Wednesday night.

Starting Tuesday, Jerusalem District police officers sought to clamp down on the festivities. They were seen going from restaurant to restaurant in the city center, forcing them to shut down. Many simply reopened Wednesday morning, incurring no legal consequences.

Mahane Yehuda, the iconic open-air market known for turning into a giant block party on weekend nights, was cordoned off by the cops for the holiday. None of these measures stopped people from going out to party, as they simply moved their festivities to the road.

When police arrived at the scene of the street party after sundown, they tried to break up the hundreds-strong crowd by driving a patrol car slowly down the bustling street while blaring its siren, but were unsuccessful.

Addressing the crowd through a loudspeaker, one of the policemen prodded celebrants to go back home. “I suggest you leave the area and disperse. We are under the Home Front Command’s instructions for public gatherings,” he said.

Police try to disperse a massive Purim party in Nachlaot, ongoing since noon despite army's wartime restrictions on public gatherings pic.twitter.com/pEWgb73R9f

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The party finally wrapped up after officers seized a young man’s boom box that was blasting trance music on the road. Very gradually, the crowd began to thin out. No arrests were made during the celebration.

Later in the night, police arrested six people at another party in Har Homa, a neighborhood in the city’s south. When officers tried to disperse the gathering, some revelers attacked law enforcement and were detained, police said.