The Women in Green organization will be holding its 18th annual Tisha B’Av walk around the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.
The walk, meant to publicly show Israel’s sovereignty of its capital, will be held on Saturday night beginning at 10:00 p.m. local time.
The event will begin with the reading of the Book of Lamentations (Eicha), written by the prophet Jeremiah, which is recited on the eve of Tisha B’Av. The actual walk will begin at 11:00 p.m., passing around the New Gate, Damascus Gate, Herod’s Gate and Lions’ Gate, ending at the Dung Gate near the Kotel.
The walk will feature presentations by speakers, including Rabbi Shalom Gold, MK Ze’ev Elkin (Likud), MK Prof. Aryeh Eldad (National Union) and MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari (National Union).
Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the month of Av, is the anniversary of the destruction of both the First and Second Temple, and is the date of many other tragedies that took place over the course of Jewish history as well. It is a day of mourning marked by an all-day fast.
This year, Tisha B’Av will be observed from sundown on Saturday night to sundown on Sunday night. According to the Hebrew calendar, the ninth of Av officially falls on Saturday, but since fasting is forbidden on the Sabbath (with the exception of Yom Kippur), the fast is postponed to Sunday.
Women in Green, headed by Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katzover, is a group that has been constantly working for advancing Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. More than 600 people took part in Women in Green’s recent conference in Hevron on the topic of annexing Judea and Samaria (Shomron).