Jerusalem Day brought together a large audience, who came for the annual celebration of the “reunification” of the city in the wake of the Six-Day War in 1967. Its most extremist participants converged on the Arab neighborhoods of the Old City to parade through the Muslim quarter. The context of the ongoing war in Gaza, however, has led the Israeli authorities to deploy a major security force of nearly 3,000 police officers. Tensions between Jewish and Arab populations have been at their highest since October 7. Israeli society itself is fractured over the conduct of military operations.
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Violence broke out in the morning ahead of the official launch of the march as groups of radical Jews took over the Arab neighborhoods of the Old City chanting slogans such as “Death to the Arabs”, “Ultimate Victory” and “Let your houses are burning.” Traders were forced to close their shops as the police were unable to ensure the safety of residents along the march route. The planned route crossed the Muslim quarter from the Damascus Gate to the Western Wall.
During the afternoon, young nationalist-religious people gradually took over the square in front of the Damascus Gate. A compact crowd formed at 6 p.m. In the heat of June, the atmosphere became tense with the exfiltration by the police of five individuals targeting groups of journalists with bottles. The interventions of the security forces took place to the boos of the audience. The few Palestinians present at the scene were also intimidated and attacked under the encouragement of the demonstrators. The police made 18 arrests in total for acts of violence, threats and disturbances in the middle of a gathering mainly made up of young men. Young teenagers and families with strollers were also present.
Among the crowd we could see many t-shirts evoking a third Jewish temple on the Esplanade des Mosques. These militant groups advocate for the destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock to rebuild the Jerusalem temple on this site which crystallizes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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Other young people wore large knitted wool kipas, characteristic of religious Zionists in the West Bank. “Repentance + war + expulsion + colonization = victory” could also be read on certain stickers stuck in the Old Town by activists. This unequivocal slogan is that of Kach, a Jewish extremist party illegal in Israel. The left-wing newspaper Haaretz has, moreover, reported the violent attack on its journalist Nir Hasson by young activists. Independent Palestinian journalist Saif Kwasmi was also attacked by a group of militants near the Damascus Gate.
Israeli Minister of National Security and leader of the far-right Jewish Force party, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited the scene early in the evening to make a statement: “Jerusalem is ours, the Damascus Gate is ours. we, the Temple Mount is ours. Today, thanks to my action, Jews freely entered the Old City and Jews prayed freely on the Temple Mount. We say it as simply as possible: it’s ours.”
“Let our heroic soldiers fight and restore national pride and security to allow our brave residents to come home. » said Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Finance, classified as far-right. A direct message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
East Jerusalem is considered by the UN to be occupied and illegally annexed territory. The State of Israel, for its part, describes Jerusalem as the “unified and indivisible” capital of the Jewish people. The March of the Flags and its crossing of the Muslim quarter of the Old City is an event experienced as a hostile provocation by the Palestinian population of Jerusalem. It is the regular occasion for acts of violence.
