West Bank to be under closure till end of Jewish holiday

(NECN/APTV) – The Israeli military said the West Bank would be under closure until the end of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur due to security concerns. A military spokesman said the closure would go into effect midnight on Saturday until after the holiday. West Bank closures have been imposed during most Jewish holidays in recent years due to concerns that Palestinian militants could take advantage of the festival to carry out attacks in Israel. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar and Jews across the world traditionally spend the day fasting and praying. In Israel, the country essentially shuts down for the day. Before the Atonement day Jewish believers perform a ceremony called Kaparot in which chickens are waved over their heads to absorb their past year’s sins. As one Jewish man in Jerusalem explained: “There is an ancient tradition to take the chicken and to do Kaparot, to say this (the chicken) is instead of me, and all the sins goes to it and then when it is slaughtered it is like everything done to the chicken was supposed to be done to me”, he said Yom Kippur began at sundown on Sunday and ends at sundown on Monday.