ISRAEL/ WEST BANK: Belly dancers and Marge Simpson celebrate Jewish festival of Purim

Record ID: 395727

  • Title: ISRAEL/ WEST BANK: Belly dancers and Marge Simpson celebrate Jewish festival of Purim
  • Date: 5th March 2007
  • Summary: (EU) HEBRON, WEST BANK (MARCH 4, 2007) (REUTERS) ISRAELI MILITARY PRESENCE AT HEBRON JEWISH SETTLERS HOLIDAY FESTIVAL PARADE VARIOUS OF CHILDREN DRESSED UP NEXT TO SOLDIERS JEWISH SETTLERS HANDING OUT HOLIDAY PACKAGES OF SWEETS TO ISRAELI SOLDIERS VARIOUS OF SETTLERS HANDING OUT HOLIDAY SWEETS TO WOMEN SOLDIERS VARIOUS VIEWS OF SETTLERS IN COSTUMES MARCHING THROUGH STREETS
  • Embargoed: 20th March 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA49UN3KQWTXIP75ZJG1PWMLR9L
  • Story Text: Jews marched to the beat of the drums in various costumes in celebration of the holiday of Purim - a commemoration of the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient times.

    Dancing to the beat of drums on a warm sunny Sunday (March 4), people in fancy dress on board floats brightened Israeli cities and Jewish settlements in the West Bank in celebration of the Jewish festival of Purim.
    A few thousand people attended the annual 'Ad-Lo-Yada' parade in the suburban Israeli city of Holon, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. According to Jewish Talmudic custom, Jews on the holiday of Purim must drink alcohol excessively to the extent that one cannot differ between good and bad.
    Television character Marge Simpson, a popcorn box, traditional Chinese clothes were among the costumes youths wore as they danced and marched to a cheering crowd of some 200,000 bystanders amid tight security.
    The Jewish holiday of Purim is celebrated to commemorate the escape of the Jewish people from annihilation when threatened thousands of years ago during the rule of the Persian Empire.
    The holiday spirit praises the Jews' salvation and the ability to turn over fates.
    Purim is celebrated this year on Saturday and Sunday in most of Israel, excluding walled cities like Jerusalem where Jews mark the holiday from Sunday till sunset on Monday.
    Elsewhere, in the West Bank city of Hebron, hundreds of settlers attended the festival in the Jewish enclave, surrounded by Palestinian residents of the divided city.
    The army stepped up security in the biblical city, a flashpoint of violence and conflict which is holy to both Jews and Muslims.
    For Jewish settlers in the Hebron enclave, the holiday of Purim is associated with a deadly attack by a Jewish settler named Baruch Goldstein who shot and killed 29 Muslim worshippers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs on the eve of Purim 1994. He was beaten to death by worshippers on the scene.
    The Jews living in the Hebron neighbourhood of Avraham Avinu are among the most extreme settlers of the 240,000 settlers in the West Bank.
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