Total Closure of West Bank: Thursday night to Sunday morning

For the Yom Kippur holiday, the Israeli Army has imposed another total closure of the West Bank from Thursday night to sometime on Sunday morning (from just after midnight onward…)

However, tourists are exempt, the Coordinator of [Israeli] Government Activities in the Territories told Ma’an News Agency this evening.

Other categories of people (NGOs, medical workers, journalists, etc.) are also exempt. The closure affects normal, ordinary West Bank Palestinians… unless they have special permits or permissions given by the Israeli Army.

Streets in Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem will be closed for the observance of the 24-hour Yom Kippur fast from Friday at sundown until Saturday at sundown.

Trucks were delivering dark blue metal police barriers at midday on Wednesday to streets all along the Uzi Narkis highway running from the Old City of Jerusalem to the Neve Yaakov-Beit Hanina intersection before two Qalandia checkpoint on the way to Ramallah.

YNet reported that an average of 61 percent of all Israeli Jews will fast on Yom Kippur, according to information published on YNet: “Asked whether they plan to fast on Yom Kippur, 61% of Israelis said yes and 28% said no. Six percent said they would fast only part of the day and 5% had yet to decide. According to a religious segmentation, 100% of haredim, 100% of religious and 85% of traditional Jews will abstain from eating and drinking for an entire day. Among seculars, about half of respondents will fast (most of them all day) and half won’t fast at all. Among those who fast, 82% will do it for religious and traditional reasons and the rest for other reasons, including respect for their parents, as a sport and to clean their bodies. In all four sectors mentioned, most of those who fast do it to observe the mitzvah [good deed]”.

Especially interesting were the reasons given for asking forgiveness on Yom Kippur: “With the option of choosing more than one answer, here is what respondents said they will ask forgiveness for. Insulting a friend or family member – 47 percent; lack of tolerance – 34 percent; not keeping the mitzvoth – 33 percent; not properly taking care of the body – 18 percent; not spending enough time with children – 11 percent; treatment of weaker parts of the society – 9 percent; not doing enough for the nation and the country – 8 percent; lack of dependability – 6 percent”. This was published here.