JERUSALEM: Hundreds of thousands of Israeli nationalists marched on the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s famous Old City, with violence directed at media persons covering the event.
The flag parade is part of Israel’s Jerusalem Day, marking its capture of the city’s east in the 1967 war.
According to the BBC, marchers threw sticks, stones, and bottles at Palestinian and other foreign journalists at the Damascus Gate entrance. They cheered and chanted racist slogans, including “Death to Arabs.”
Far-right Israeli cabinet ministers joined the procession. One of them, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, declared: “Jerusalem is ours forever.”
Palestinians along the way in occupied East Jerusalem earlier shuttered shops and homes over fears of abuse.
The march has progressively become a show of force for Israeli Jewish ultranationalists, while for Palestinians, it is seen as a blatant provocation undermining their relations with the city.
Nationalist marchers often shout racist, anti-Arab chants. The event has, in the past, sparked much broader violence.
Israeli police vowed to stop law-breaking but blamed regional “terrorist elements” for “wild incitement” about the march on social media. They said it was only “a small minority on both sides [who] try to agitate.”
Palestinian leaders called the East Jerusalem events a “provocative act,” saying far-right cabinet ministers Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich – staunch supporters of the parade – were “planting seeds of conflict.”
Prime Minister of Isreal Benjamin Netanyahu said the event would go as planned. Along the way in the Old City, Samir Abu Sbeih pulled down the shutters of his shop, saying that Israeli police had advised Palestinian businesses to do so by mid-afternoon.
“It’s not their land to celebrate,” he said of the march. “We live under occupation, and that’s why we must accept it.” Kebab restaurant owner Basti, who didn’t want to give his full name, said the occurrence had become “worse” over the years.
“People, when they dance with the Israeli flag, sometimes they try to put it in your face, sometimes they spit on your face. And this isn’t nice.” He said police told him he wasn’t being forced to close but that if he kept his business open, it would be at his own risk. He said, “For me, I just want to be inside. I do not like problems for both sides.”
Israelis have marked Jerusalem Day events for decades, but in current years, parts of the way have been the focus of spiralling tensions.
In the late afternoon, around 10,000 Israelis headed west of Jerusalem to the Old City, ending with a so-called flag dance at the Western Wall, the holiest site for Jewish prayer.
