Thousands of Israelis participated in a new edition of the Flag March through the streets of Jerusalem, a traditionally contentious event but in which this year there have been no serious incidents beyond more than a dozen arrests.
During the march, which runs through the Muslim quarter of Jerusalemthere have been isolated episodes of violence and harassment by some of the most radical attendees, although it is true that there were insults and chants against the Arab population.
various groups of protesters launched racist proclamationssuch as “death to the Arabs” or “burn their village”, while they also danced in the vicinity of the Damascus Gate, one of the accesses to the Old City of Jerusalem.
The Israel Police confirmed the arrest of a dozen people even before the start of the March of the Flags, including several left-wing activists who had blocked a West Bank route. Several others were detained for provoking the Palestinians. attended the march Israel’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, promoter of the controversial judicial reform which has revealed friction within the Israeli government, led by conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ben Gvir has normally been a regular at this concentration, although this is the first time he has done so as a member of the Israeli government, as the local newspaper recalls. Times of Israel.
The participants in the march are “a danger, they knock on the doors of shops and our homes,” said Abu al-Abed, 72.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said Thursday that the celebration in Jerusalem occurs “3,000 years after it was founded by King David, 75 years after it was refounded as the capital of the reborn state of Israel, and 56 years after it was reunited.”
“Jerusalem is ours forever,” Itamar Ben Gvir said at the closing ceremony at the Wailing Wall. But the issue of Jerusalem is part of the unresolved conflict with the Palestinians.
Thus, the March of the Flags passed without serious incidents despite the fear that some of the attendees would try to get closer to the Esplanade of the Mosques, thus raising tensions.
The march is organized by far-right and religious organizations to commemorate the “unification” of Jerusalem and the taking of the Old City, including the Esplanade of the Mosques -known to the Jews as the Temple Mount- during the Six Day War in 1967, a fact not recognized internationally.
The act took place less than a week after a new ceasefire in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli bombing campaign against Islamic Jihad that has left more than 30 Palestinians dead. In addition, two people died in Israel – an Israeli and a Palestinian – from the impact of projectiles.
In 2021, during the march, clashes broke out in Jerusalem that lasted 11 days and left dozens of Palestinians injured.
In 2022, 79 people were injured in clashes between Israeli and Palestinian security forces.
This year, the Israeli police reported that they deployed 2,500 men in Jerusalem to ensure public order.
