Thousands of Israeli nationalists marched Wednesday through annexed east Jerusalem as authorities deployed police and tensions with Palestinians soared nearly eight months into the Gaza war.
The so-called Jerusalem Day flag march commemorates the Israeli army’s capture in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war of the city’s eastern sector home to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site, which Jews call the Temple Mount.
Thousands of Jewish nationalists, including far-right activists, marched through predominantly Arab neighbourhoods of the Old City, waving Israeli national flags, dancing and occasionally shouting inflammatory or racist slogans.
“This is my country. I am the owner here. I’m the boss here, there is no Palestine,” screamed a participant as he marched past a group of journalists.
From early on Wednesday, police set up barriers near Damascus Gate after announcing plans to deploy more than 3,000 officers during the day.
Most shops in the Old City were closed before the march started as streets slowly emptied of Palestinians and filled with young Israelis, some of whom carried weapons.
Young people waving large Israeli flags and chanting “The people of Israel live” were seen near Jaffa Gate, and some wore T-shirts reading “My land, I do not want to divide it”.
Some far-right marchers scuffled with a journalist in the sector’s Muslim Quarter, according to an AFP correspondent.
Many threw empty water bottles at reporters covering the event at Damascus Gate, with some of them taken away by police.
Stones were thrown from a roof above the narrow streets, the correspondent said. Police said 18 people suspected of various offences including assault had been arrested.
Palestinian businesses typically close near the march route.
Zaki Abu Muhammad, 52, told AFP: “I am against closing our shops while the procession passes through the Old City, but people are thinking about protecting their children.”
“The city is empty,” he said.
The march commemorates Jerusalem’s reunification under Israeli rule after it captured the city’s eastern half — home to the historic Old City and its sites holy to three Abrahamic religions — in the 1967 war.
– ‘Victory is ours’ –
For many Palestinians, the route through predominantly Arab neighbourhoods is seen as a deliberate provocation. The Palestinians claim the city’s eastern sector as the capital of their future state.
A man who gave his name as Ibrahim said: “The shops must not close their doors, and they must not allow the settlers to take over the city. All Arabs must be in Jerusalem today.”
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said at the march: “We send a message to Hamas. Jerusalem is ours. Damascus gate is ours. The Temple Mount is ours.”
“With the held of God, the full victory is ours,” he said, as crowds of people cheered.
Marchers shouted: “The eternal people aren’t scared. May your village burn.”
Others chanted: “The people of Israel live on. All Arabs can suck it.”
Elie Duran, 64, said the celebration had taken on greater meaning after the war in Gaza.
“We celebrate every year with so much fervour, maybe a little more this year because I lost my son in Gaza this year, so there’s something more emotional for me,” he told AFP.
– ‘Rampage of settlers’ –
On Tuesday, Ben Gvir had told the army radio that he and fellow marchers intended to march to the super-sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
The site known to Jews as the Temple Mount is the most sacred site to them. They are allowed to visit at certain times but not to pray.
Police said they expected the march to end later on Wednesday at its normal terminus, the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray.
“The march is not expected to pass through the Temple Mount or the Temple Mount gates,” a police statement said.
Police said they were deploying officers throughout the city to “maintain public order, safety and secure property, as well as direct traffic” during the march.
In 2021, Hamas launched a barrage of rockets toward Jerusalem as the march began, triggering a 12-day conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group that also saw Jewish-Arab violence in Israeli cities.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh condemned the “rampage of settlers” and said “our people will not rest until the occupation ends and an independent Palestinian state is established with Jerusalem as its capital”.
Earlier, the militant group urged Palestinians “to make today, Wednesday, a day of anger”.
This year’s march comes nearly eight months after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 36,586 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
