Waving flags and chanting slogans, thousands of Israeli nationalists marched through annexed east Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday, with main streets empty of Palestinians fearing attacks.
Thousands of Jewish nationalists, including far-right activists, marched through predominantly Arab neighborhoods of the Old City, waving Israeli flags, dancing and occasionally shouting inflammatory or racist slogans.
From early on Wednesday, police set up barriers near Damascus Gate, deploying more than 3,000 officers.
Most shops in the Old City were closed before the march, as streets emptied of Palestinians and filled with young Israelis, some carrying weapons.
Moments later, a large group of boys insulted and threw garbage at Saman, prompting security forces to disperse the crowd before moving on to break up another clash.
Outside the Old City, families and youth stopped near the city hall in west Jerusalem to sing along to live music and dance in an atmosphere void of tensions and violence.
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.
For many Palestinians, the route through predominantly Arab neighborhoods is seen as a deliberate provocation. Palestinians claim the city’s eastern sector as the capital of their future state.
By the time the march officially began, all shops on the route had been shuttered, and the worst clashes had passed.
Marching down the narrow streets of the Old City, some chanted “The people of Israel will live” or “The eternal people aren’t scared.”
Jerusalem Day flag march commemorates the Israeli army’s capture of the city’s eastern sector in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, home to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site, which Jews call the Temple Mount.
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 help of God, the full victory is ours,” he said, as crowds cheered.
