Dozens of Haredi men and boys gathered outside Cafe Basimta on Agripas Street in central Jerusalem on Saturday and attempted to force their way inside. Secular patrons were in the cafe, a counter-demonstration formed in support of it, and police moved in with batons only once the protesters appeared close to breaking through the door.
It was the fifth consecutive week of protests at the premises and, by the account of those present, the largest turnout of the campaign. The cafe opens on Shabbat and is affiliated with Jews for Jesus, a combination that has drawn both objections at once. Opposition leader Avigdor Liberman of Yisrael Beytenu weighed in publicly.
Disputes over Shabbat commerce in Jerusalem are old and usually municipal, settled through licensing and zoning rather than on a pavement. What is notable here is the repetition. A protest that returns to the same address for five weeks is no longer about one business, it is a test of who sets the terms of a shared street.