By: Ray Zhao

With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new bill set to limit judicial power in Israel, tensions in the country are at an all-time high. Even people going to recreation centers like swimming pools find themselves embroiled in a heated conflict between two sides of Israel.

Trying to take a break from life, many in Israel go to swimming pools to hang out and relax. But a bitter dispute about who should be swimming with whom is transforming Israel’s pools.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who make up about 14 percent of the Jewish population in Israel, are pitted against the more moderate secular Jews who make up 45 percent of the population.

These two groups have often fought in the past, over questions like What should be open on the Sabbath? and Should ultra-Orthodox men be exempt from perform military duties in exchange for religious study?

Ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that swimming pools should be segregated based on gender and closed on the Sabbath. Secular Jews believe the opposite – swimmers of all genders should have the option to swim together and the pool should be open on Saturdays.

Rehovot is a city in central Israel. On summer days, sweltering heat causes many to go for a swim during the afternoon. The city pool has had to address the concerns of Orthodox and secular pool-goers. It decided on a compromise: one pool that suits the ultra-Orthodox Jews, and another that caters to secular Jews. The two pools, literally separated by nothing other than a concrete wall, are almost worlds apart in belief.

Chaya Hitin, who is an ultra-Orthodox Jew, took her daughters to their pool, where they shared beliefs with the other pool-goers. Hitin spoke for everybody on that side of the wall when she said that “I definitely feel seen here as a religious Jew,” and added that “it’s just nice to be with the girls.”

Meanwhile, just 40 meters away, secular Jews were also happy with the outcome. Odelia Tsaidi-Zommer, who went to the secular pool with her three-year-old son, said that she felt that the pool’s policies were “amazing.” She also said that this innovative solution was “more equal for both sectors.”

Other places, meanwhile, are not so lucky. Differences, strained by the most religious government in Israeli history, are causing protests that sometime turn in to gatherings where hundreds of thousands of people launch protests and counter-protests.