ISRAEL: A day without cars

Here's a few spare photos from several hours spent riding my bicycle around Jerusalem on Yom Kippur.

The annual holy day completely transforms the country. All stores shut down, and vehicle traffic is banned in most places.

But in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem, it was business as usual.

Stores remained open, and cars moved around normally.

Temporary barricades blocked East Jerusalem drivers from entering the no-car zone of the west side.

   

With no cars on the roads, Jerusalem's normally crowded streets became pedestrian havens.

Walkers, cyclists and tourists reveled in a city without cars.

Observant Jews headed to synagogues across the city for special Yom Kippur prayers. In some neighborhoods, the sound of chanted Hebrew prayers rang out from multiple directions.

— Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem

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Comments

[Concept Cars]

Sometimes without vehicles, all the roads without heavy traffic, heavy noise.. gives the feel of heaven..

[rick]

Except in Acre, Israel, where Arabs drove their cars with radios blasting to make Yom Kippur a much differerent day than Jews had planned. They also broke the windshields and slashed the tires of over 140 Jewish owned cars, lead 'allah akbar' chanting through the jewish part of town which was largely quiet due to Yom Kippur and threw stones at any Jews who ventured out. This is in Israel, not in an Arab country.