Gentrification is slowly transforming Katamonim. Work on a new tram line is tearing apart this popular neighborhood in southern Jerusalem, and huge billboards depict the luxury skyscrapers that will soon rise in place of the city’s bars. chikunim, Israeli HLMs. In the meantime, Katamonim remains a stronghold of the small Sephardic people, a bastion of the “second Israel”. “Here, everyone votes to the right,” warns Tsion Cohen, a laughing sixty-year-old. In fact, the Likud records its best scores on a national scale and the mention of Benjamin Netanyahu inevitably arouses laudatory comments.
The fault of “the elites”
To meet these “Bibi” fans, you have to open the door of the neighborhood’s large synagogue atArvit, evening prayer. After the service, clusters of worshipers linger to comment on the latest events in the war in Gaza. They unanimously deplore the calls for a ceasefire launched by the UN and certain European countries. “If we stop the war now, it’s as if we had done nothing, as if our soldiers had died for nothing,” says Moshe Allouche, a taxi driver from the neighborhood. While Netanyahu’s popularity is sinking, it remains at its zenith here. We praise his ability to resist international pressure and his combativeness against Hamas. Even the security failure of October 7 is forgiven. “He is responsible, that’s obvious, because he’s the boss,” says Tsion Cohen. “But he’s like a factory director who trusts his managers. They did anything by assuring him that everything was fine, and he believed them. The real culprits are the intelligence services and the general staff. It’s the elite who got us into this mess.”
For his supporters, the Israeli Prime Minister, in office almost continuously since 2009, does not belong to the circles of power, but is subject to their dictatorship. Like the American Trumpists, the Israeli “bibists” see their champion as a victim of the deep state. “The media and judges hate him because he wants to pursue true right-wing policies,” Tsion says. “They push him to accept a ceasefire in exchange for the release of the hostages. Their fate tears my heart, but “It would be pure madness to leave Gaza, because Hamas would start murdering us again.”
In Katamonim, the thesis of a Prime Minister hampered by “leftists” and misled by incompetent intelligence services is flourishing. Having recently settled in the neighborhood, former Likud MP Yehuda Glick finds all the mitigating circumstances in Netanyahu. “In 2014, we were in the heart of Gaza and we had the upper hand over Hamas, then much less powerful than today. Netanyahu wanted to continue the offensive until it was eradicated but the media and the left were putting pressure to that he stop the war, because 70 soldiers had already died at the front. He gave in and now everyone is falling on him.”
“Qatar’s suitcases of money have turned into a river of blood…”
However, part of the traditional Likud electorate is turning away from Netanyahu, accusing him of his policy of appeasement against Hamas before October 7. Convinced that the economic development of Gaza would lead the Islamist movement to bury the hatchet, the Prime Minister tolerated the suitcases of dollars from Qatar and turned a blind eye to the tons of weapons introduced through the clandestine tunnels dug between Egypt and Gaza. “I have supported you for so many years. Yes you, the ‘Mr. Security’. Well the conceptions of ‘Mr. Security’ blew up in our faces. And the suitcases of money from Qatar turned into a river of blood,” said Yaron Farouk, a refugee from the northern border, during an anti-Netanyahu rally on January 7.
But in Katamonim, these criticisms have little traction. That evening, we inaugurated a Sefer Torah, a scroll of the Hebrew Bible rolled up in a gleaming silver chest. A procession of around a hundred people, galvanized by religious songs broadcast at full blast, accompanies the holy book towards the small Lubavitch synagogue. “We will all pray to win this war and bring home our hostages,” implores the rabbi into the microphone. The audience chants. “We must remain united in the face of such a cruel enemy,” assures Simha, a mother of many children. “Hamas dreams of seeing us tear each other apart. We must unite around our Prime Minister, even if he has surely made mistakes. The main thing to win this war is the unity of all Jews.”
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