| First of all, Israel doesn't have a regime. It has a government. |
It is an hour or two before the Sabbath, and customers spill out of Gershon Hickmann's small grocery shop in Ramat Shlomo dressed in the sober costume of Hasidic Jewry and clutching bags crammed with loaves of challah bread for their Friday evening meals.
Despite the utilitarianism of the East Jerusalem suburb's homes, there is a sense of timelessness, born of the settlement's religious devotion and semi-rural setting.
Yet across the valley, black smoke rises from burning barricades beyond the Palestinian refugee camp of Shuafat. No one affects to notice the fumes, nor the distant popping of tear gas canisters and stun grenades, a reminder of the almost daily clashes that have erupted between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces ever since Ramat Shlomo found itself at the centre of unwanted international attention. |