JERUSALEM—When a team of Jewish and Muslim Jerusalemites desired to show that Israelis and Palestinians could coexist peaceably during a wave of communal violence, they joined to hand out cakes and cookies in their community of Abu Tor.
The gesture backfired. Palestinians who took element been given death threats from callers who accused them of collaborating with Israel. Somebody shot at the property of a outstanding Palestinian leader. And the so-known as Fantastic Neighbors project—which runs language classes, established up a youth soccer workforce and hosts an informal cafe where by folks can meet—quickly shelved most of its function.
“We’ve taken lots of measures backward,” stated David Maeir-Epstein, a member of the Fantastic Neighbors job who served hand out the sweets. “We really don’t consider that we have absent off the precipice, but it’s fragile—and you realize how quickly factors can adjust.”
Israelis and Palestinians have been grappling with mounting tensions that have tested all people from the country’s leading officials to community organizers.
Protests in East Jerusalem more than plans to evict dozens of Palestinian families from residences claimed by Jewish activists turned a catalyst in May perhaps for an eleven-working day conflict with Hamas militants in Gaza. The battle with Hamas was element of a broader surge in violence in Israel and the West Lender.
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