JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Thousands of Israeli nationalists marched on Thursday through the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem's walled Old City under heavy security, in an annual event marking Israel's capture of the city's east in a war nearly six decades ago.
Palestinian residents, many of whom barricaded themselves inside their homes in the Old City, view the Jerusalem Day parade as a provocation to undermine their ties to the city.
As Israelis marched through the Muslim quarter that is home to thousands of Palestinians, some of the demonstrators, mostly young men, chanted "May your villages burn" and "Death to Arabs" while waving Israeli flags.
Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed it, a move that the United Nations and most countries have not recognised.
"Jerusalem is our holy city. It is our holy city forever," said Shira Gefen, a 53-year-old Israeli who travelled to Jerusalem from her home near Haifa for the rally.
"We are very happy and excited to be here. This is the heart of the world and the heart of all Jewish people," said George, a 65-year-old Israeli who lives near Ashkelon in the country’s south. He declined to give his last name.
Israeli authorities deployed thousands of police officers, some in riot gear, in Jerusalem, including at Damascus Gate, the main gateway to the historic Muslim quarter.
The police erected barricades around the Damascus Gate area, preventing Palestinians who do not live in the Old City from entering. Palestinian shopkeepers in the Old City said they were forced to close ahead of the parade.
TENSIONS
The parade's path starts in West Jerusalem and ends at the Western Wall, a remnant of an ancient retaining structure revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, a vestige of their faith's two ancient temples. Muslims refer to that area as Al Haram Al Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, a compound that is the third holiest site in Islam.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's far-right national security minister, visited the compound on Thursday and raised an Israeli flag as security men stood behind him.
Under a delicate, decades-old arrangement with Muslim authorities, the flashpoint compound is administered by a Jordanian religious foundation and Jews can visit but may not pray there. Ben-Gvir has sought prayer permits for Jews at the site.
"The Temple Mount is in our hands, the Temple Mount is ours," said.
At one point during Thursday's march, Israeli police forced activists seeking to provide a protective presence to Palestinians — along with members of the media — out of the Old City, before later allowing journalists to return while restricting them to an area by the Austrian Hospice.
Palestinians view the Jerusalem Day procession as part of a broader campaign to bolster Jewish presence across the city to their detriment.
They have long sought East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.