What is the controversial ‘Flag March’ carried out on Jerusalem Day in Old City?

May 19, 2023 - 17:30

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What is the controversial ‘Flag March’ carried out on Jerusalem Day in Old City?

Amid rising tension in Israel and Palestine, tens of thousands of Israelis thronged told the Old City of Jerusalem, waving the Star of David flags, on Thursday. They marched through the Muslim quarter of the walled city with some nationalists hurling racist insults at journalists and others chanting anti-Palestine slogans. The Flag March is an annual event that is condemned by Palestinians.

The parade is the mainstay of Jerusalem Day, which marks Israel’s capture of the east of the city in the 1967 Middle East War. While the march has become a show of force for Jewish nationalists, Palestinians look at it as nothing but a blatant provocation meant to undermine their ties to the city.

We take a look at the history of the march.

What is Jerusalem Day?

Israel fought several Arab armies in the 1967 war, during which it captured territories including East Jerusalem. The country has since annexed East Jerusalem, in a move that has not won international recognition, and regards the entire city as its eternal and undivided capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

Every year, Israel marks Jerusalem Day, which the government refers to as the “reunification” of Jerusalem. The annual commemoration draws crowds in the tens of thousands.

Israelis participate in the Flag March on Jerusalem Day at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray in the Old City of Jerusalem Thursday. AP

The march was designed to recreate the path that Israeli soldiers took to capture the Old City on 7 June 1967. The route has changed over the years and now the flag-waving march cuts through downtown Jerusalem before entering the walled Old City, home to sites holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims

Men and women take separate routes on the march, with men entering the Old City via Damascus Gate in the north, women entering through Jaffa Gate on the east side of the city, and the two groups meeting at the Western Wall, according to a CNN report.

Why does the march irk Palestinians?

The heavily policed procession passes through the Old City’s narrow streets, including areas that are popular among Palestinians such as Damascus Gate and the Muslim Quarter, forcing Arab shopkeepers to often shut shop. The march has been marred by violence and some acts of racist incitement on several occasions.

Another source of tension has been visits by large groups of Jewish pilgrims, including members of parliament, to the al-Aqsa mosque compound. It is the third holiest site in Islam and Jews revere it as the Temple Mount, a vestige of two ancient temples.

Israeli police push away Palestinians from a street in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, before the march through the area by Jewish nationalists. AP

Palestinians say the visits and police enforcement around them are an Israeli attempt to encroach on one of the few places in the city where they sense a degree of sovereignty.

Muslims say Jewish visitors are also increasingly violating a decades-old ban on non-Muslim worship on the compound. Israel says it prevents such prayer and maintains the status quo.

Also read: Israel-Palestine tensions rise: Is ‘third intifada’ in offing?

How has the event led to violence in recent years?

During the 2021 march, the Islamist Hamas group fired rockets into Israel, helping spark an 11-day war that killed at least 250 Palestinians in Gaza and 13 people in Israel.

Hamas, which governs blockaded Gaza, has cast itself in recent years as a defender of Jerusalem’s Palestinians and Muslim holy sites. Ahead of Thursday’s march, it warned of an “explosion” if right-wing marchers violate the status quo at the al-Aqsa mosque compound or attack Palestinians.

This year, Palestinians also organised their own flag marches in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, with some processions set to take place only a few hundred metres away from the Israel-Gaza separation fence.

Israelis celebrate Jerusalem Day, just outside Jerusalem’s Old City. Palestinians see the march as a provocation. AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

What happened at this year’s march?

This year’s march threatened to disrupt the ceasefire reached between Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Israel on Saturday after at least 33 Palestinians were killed in a four-day Israeli bombardment. One Israeli was also killed by Palestinian rocket fire.

On Thursday, 2,500 officers were deployed to maintain law and order. The march ended has led to no escalation so far but journalists covering the event were reportedly attacked. A group of marchers threw stones, sticks and bottles at Palestinian and foreign journalists at the Damascus Gate entrance, reports the BBC.

Crowds of rowdy Jewish youth danced and chanted “Death to Arabs” and other slogans. The procession was joined by far-right Israeli Cabinet ministers with the National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, declaring, “Jerusalem is ours forever.”

Many Palestinian shopkeepers shuttered their businesses in the Old City, where march organisers hung Israeli flags along the narrow alleyways.

As the march ended in a mass gathering in front of the Western Wall, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Jerusalem will stay united forever.”

With inputs from agencies

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