Last night I went out to the anti-government protests in Jerusalem. I came out of a sense of curiosity and also some solidarity. Some shots and thoughts from a "participant-observer": 1/n

The protests are centered in Jerusalem's Paris Square, essentially a traffic intersection next to Independence park, and importantly, near the PM's residence on Balfour St. The protesters decided to "rename" it Democracy Square. Notice the aspirational prominence of Arabic. 2/n

The vibe is youthful, carnivalesque, weird. People are selling street food (pictured: a beer truck with a quote from Homer S. "Beer is the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems"), there's a stand offering free karaoke with some shirt-less dude wearing a skirt.3/n

The crowd is young. Unlike most left-leaning protests in Israel, grey hair doesn't dominate. I came across some Haredim, knitted yarmulkes too. Few Arabs, but signs calling for #Justice4Iyad and "a democracy is judged by its attitude to minorities" 4/n

The scene is semi-chaotic, largely because there is no organizing body and no clear messaging. On the one hand, this attracts soapbox freaks (one woman was yelling about how Corona is a conspiracy). On the other hand, this is the most bottom-up thing I've ever seen. 5/n

The real story is the signs. There are almost no standard political signs, i.e. Labor, Meretz. The aesthetic is DIY. Wordy signs fail. The short and clever ones bang. Pictured: "Quit" and "People of Israel: Enough!" 6/n

The clever ones really don't translate, but they do clever things in the Hebrew: "The country is sinking" (a reference to a case against #Bibi involving Submarines); "Submarine (close to "to be") or not to be"; "Fly away bird/robber" 7/n

A lot of the protest signs are about the right and the need to protest: "The right to shout-out is ours"; "Silence Like a Cancer Grows" 8/n

The overarching message, if there is 1: "We the People": A scale inscribed with "We are all equal before the Law"-a reference to gov corruption+Bibi's attempt to circumvent taxes;"Against us all there's no chance they can last long" "WE are the State"; "Long Live Democracy" 9/n

A lot of signs of hope, hopelessness & the hopefulness of hopelessness (channeling a little @jorosenfeld here). "Hope"; "Our Hope is not yet lost" "Scared for tomorrow, dreaming olive-branches, and want to feel that Here is Home"; "Let the Sun Shine" (it rhymes in the Hebrew)10/n

Something else: Slogans bordering on the incomprehensible. You find this with Israeli graffiti (Orly Castel-Bloom wrote about this) and it's at the protests: "Sarah How about some more recipes?"; And this one I can't translate, but it's perfect: עד מתי סברי מרנן

Most interesting for me is the use of religious language, common in Israeli populist Hebrew, even by secular Jews, but something in the Jerusalem air heightens things. There are the Isaiah t-shirts: “How has the faithful town become a whore?..." "Turn from Evil and Do Good" 12/n

I end with a traditional call for repentance, held by a bare-headed man, in time for the Jewish New Year: "During the Month of Elul we beat [our hearts] over sin and start believing again." And this American yeshiva student, protesting from quarantining in his dorm room. /Fin