Jerusalem Day: annual Israeli ‘flag march’ long been viewed by Palestinians as a provocation

More than 50,000 Israelis — mainly young, religious, right-wing nationalists — marched through Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday waving Israeli flags to celebrate the anniversary of the capture of Arab east Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War.

The march passed off relatively peacefully and most stores in the narrow alleyways of the Old City’s Muslim quarter along the route of the march closed in advance of the event. Police reported isolated scuffles and incidents of anti-Arab racist chants from some of the marchers.

Earlier in the day police clashed with Palestinians holed up inside the Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount, revered to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif Noble Sanctuary, before some 2,600 Jews visited the flashpoint sacred site. Palestinians threw stones and fireworks at police, who responded with stun grenades. The police then locked the doors of the mosque with some of the rioters inside.

“Israel is irresponsibly and recklessly playing with fire by allowing settlers to desecrate the holy sites,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

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Hamas claimed some of the Jewish visitors had tried to pray in violation of the long-running status quo.

“The Israel government is fully responsible for all these irresponsible policies and the following consequences,” senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said. The government of Naftali Bennett decided to permit the flag march, held annually since 1967, despite threats from Palestinian groups of a violent response. Thousands of extra police were deployed to Jerusalem and other mixed Jewish-Arab cities.

Last year, during the march, militants from Gaza launched a salvo of rockets at Jerusalem, in what became the opening shots of the 2021 Gaza war which lasted 11 days. Fearing a repeat scenario, the Israeli military had deployed anti-missile batteries in advance of Sunday’s march and Israeli jets flew over the Gaza Strip as Israel warned that militant rocket fire would be met with a harsh response.

Prime minister Bennett defended the decision to let the march go ahead, despite criticism from left-wing ministers who termed it a provocation, following two months of tension.

“Fifty-five years ago, soldiers liberated the Old City and united Jerusalem. It is an event that in one moment also united the entire nation,” he said. “Waving the Israeli flag in the capital of Israel is obvious and correct, so we were clear on the subject from the start.”

Defence minister Benny Gantz warned that while Israel wants peace, it knows “how to fight fiercely if war is imposed on us”.

“Also today, here in Jerusalem, we insist that everyone has the right to live safely. Israel faithfully protects the rights of Muslim residents, as well as the status quo and freedom of worship,” he said. “At the same time, we reserve the right of the Jews to march to the Western Wall and celebrate Jerusalem Day. And I call for it to be done as respectfully as possible.”