Opposition to the proposed Gay Rights Parade in Jerusalem has put to-gether strange bed-fellows. The Ultra-Orhodox Jewish Community in Jerusalem and its Palestinian Muslim counterpart fiercely oppose the Parade taking place in Jerusalem. Both groups view the parade as an abomination of Jerusalem as a city holy to both Jew and Muslim. What is interesting is this joint co-operation in opposing the parade. It would seem that in the face of a righty or wrongly perceived "external threat" to their way of life Palestinian Muslim and Israeli Jew cannot only co-exist but can actually cooperate - and that in a city which exemplifies more than any other the bitter Israeli-Palestinian divide.
A few years back I vacationed in London during Succot and sat on a bench in Regent's Park. I happened to see two fairly large family groups strolling near each other - one group consisted of Ultra Orhodox Jews and the other of religious Muslims - both enjoying the late autumn air and playing with children and grandchildren. What struck me observing these two groups was how similar they really were - and how an ignorant stranger looking at them would probably lump them together as probably belonging to the same religious group. I would even venture to suggest that the Ultra Orthodox Jews would, at least from a dietary and dress code point of view, have felt more at home with the Muslims than they would have with me a Secular Jew.
And as for me? Well, sitting as a lawyer in a Tel Aviv Court to-day, I looked over at an Israeli Jewish lawyer having a friendly conversation with an Israeli-Arab (Palestinian) lawyer. They chatted amiacably in Hebrew for several minutes. What struck me was how much the Arab lawyer was Israeli and how the two lawyers were part of the same people (at least in the eyes of my ignorant stranger looking in). From a cultural social point of view the two lawyers have more in common with each other than they might have with many co-religionists or fellow nationals from abroad - for example with a non-hebrew speaking Jew from Alaska or with a Magreb Arab or non-Arabic speaking English Muslim respectively.
The bottom line is that it is all a bit confusing - this overly strict division of ethnic groups just does not always stand up to the reality test - and perhaps we would be better off if we sometimes let reality take its course.
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