Far-right Israelis confront Palestinians, other Israelis in chaotic march
A large rally in Jerusalem marking Israel's capture of the city's east in a 1967 war descended into chaos on Monday as far-right Israeli Jews confronted and assaulted Palestinians, fellow Israelis and journalists, witnesses said.
The annual "Flag March" drew tens of thousands of people, chanting, dancing and waving Israeli flags after far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, a longtime flash point of Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
Violence broke out in the walled Old City of East Jerusalem shortly after midday, a witness said, when young marchers began harassing the few Palestinian shopkeepers who had yet to shutter their stores ahead of the rally.
The marchers, mostly young Israelis who live in settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, then began to target Israeli left-wing activists and journalists observing the rally.
The demonstrators shouted nationalistic slogans and called for violence against Palestinians, chanting, "Death to Arabs.'
A Palestinian woman and journalists were spat on by a group of young settlers, and nearby Israeli police did not intervene, the witness said.
Police officials did not respond to a request for comment. No arrests were reported as of late afternoon.
A police officer at the scene said young Israeli marchers could not be arrested because they were under the age of 18.
Moshe, a 35-year-old Israeli settler from the West Bank and supporter of the current right-wing government, walked through a Palestinian neighborhood of the Old City with a rifle slung over his shoulder and his daughter on his shoulders. It was a "very happy day' because all of Jerusalem was "under the government of Israel,' he said, declining to give his last name.
Left-wing opposition leader Yair Golan, a former armed forces deputy commander, called images of violence in the Old City "shocking.' He said in a statement, "This is not what loving Jerusalem looks like. This is what hatred, racism and bullying look like."
"We will keep Jerusalem united, whole, and under Israeli sovereignty," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting held in East Jerusalem earlier on Monday.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian presidency based in the West Bank condemned the march and Ben Gvir's visit to Al-Aqsa.
Israel's ongoing war in Gaza, "repeated incursions into the Al-Aqsa mosque compound and provocative acts such as raising the Israeli flag in occupied Jerusalem threaten the stability of the entire region," the spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said in a statement.
Clashes flared throughout the day as left-wing Israeli activists intervened to escort Palestinians away from young far-right Israeli Jews threatening passersby, witnesses said.
Journalists covering the rally were repeatedly harassed and in some instances assaulted, the witness said.
Earlier, Ben Gvir visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the walled Old City, known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Arabs as the Noble Sanctuary — the third holiest site in Islam.
Ben Gvir said in a video filmed at the elevated compound that the site was being flooded by Jews. "Today, thank God, it is already possible to pray on the Temple Mount,' he said.
Under a decades-old arrangement, the compound is administered by a Jordanian Islamic trust. Jews, who regard the compound as the site of two ancient temples, are allowed to visit but not pray there.
Ben Gvir, whose visit was condemned by the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, has along with others on the far right in Israel long pushed for Jewish prayer rights at the site.
This year's Flag March again coincided with the war in Gaza, now in its 20th month, and escalating Israeli military operations against Palestinian militants in the West Bank, where settler attacks targeting Palestinian residents have been on the rise.
The march frequently stokes tension as ultranationalist Jews stream into Palestinian areas of Jerusalem's walled Old City en route to the Western Wall, one of Judaism's most sacred sites, which abuts the mosque compound.
The 2021 rally led to a brief war between Israel and Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas. The current war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas' October 2023 attack on southern Israeli communities.
Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the Old City, from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state that would include the West Bank and Gaza.
Most countries consider East Jerusalem to be occupied territory and do not recognize Israeli sovereignty over it. Israel deems Jerusalem as its eternal, indivisible capital.
In 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump recognized all of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv. On Sunday, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, congratulated Israel on what he called the reunification of the city 58 years ago.
Naomi Hirschler, 39, an Israeli hairdresser from Jerusalem, walking past shuttered Palestinian-owned stores in the Old City, said she attends the rally every year.
"It's something you can't explain. You feel it. It's happiness from inside,' she said, adding that she was "very happy that we have Jerusalem for us.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Times
37 minutes ago
- Japan Times
U.S. slams U.N. conference on Israel-Palestinian issue and warns of consequences
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is discouraging governments around the world from attending a U.N. conference next week on a possible two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, according to a U.S. cable seen by Reuters. The diplomatic demarche, sent on Tuesday, says countries that take "anti-Israel actions" following the conference will be viewed as acting in opposition to U.S. foreign policy interests and could face diplomatic consequences from Washington. The demarche, which was not previously reported, runs squarely against the diplomacy of two close allies France and Saudi Arabia, who are co-hosting the gathering next week in New York that aims to lay out the parameters for a roadmap to a Palestinian state, while ensuring Israel's security. "We are urging governments not to participate in the conference, which we view as counterproductive to ongoing, life-saving efforts to end the war in Gaza and free hostages," read the cable. President Emmanuel Macron has suggested France could recognize a Palestinian state in Israeli-occupied territories at the conference. French officials say they have been working to avoid a clash with the U.S., Israel's staunchest major ally. "The United States opposes any steps that would unilaterally recognize a conjectural Palestinian state, which adds significant legal and political obstacles to the eventual resolution of the conflict and could coerce Israel during a war, thereby supporting its enemies," the cable read. The United States for decades backed a two-state solution between the Israelis and the Palestinians that would create a state for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza alongside Israel. Trump, in his first term, was relatively tepid in his approach to a two-state solution, a longtime pillar of U.S. Middle East policy. The Republican president has given little sign of where he stands on the issue in his second term. But on Tuesday, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a long-time vocal supporter of Israel, said he did not think an independent Palestinian state remained a U.S. foreign policy goal. "Unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state would effectively render Oct. 7 Palestinian Independence Day," the cable read, referring to when Palestinian Hamas militants carried out a cross-border attack from Gaza on Israel in 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Hamas' attack triggered Israel's air and ground war in Gaza in which almost 55,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of the 2.3 million population displaced and the enclave widely reduced to rubble. If Macron went ahead, France, home to Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities, would become the first Western heavyweight to recognize a Palestinian state. This could lend greater momentum to a movement hitherto dominated by smaller nations generally more critical of Israel. Macron's stance has shifted amid Israel's intensified Gaza offensive and escalating violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, and there is a growing sense of urgency in Paris to act now before the idea of a two-state solution vanishes forever. The U.S. cable said Washington had worked tirelessly with Egypt and Qatar to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, free the hostages and end the conflict. "This conference undermines these delicate negotiations and emboldens Hamas at a time when the terrorist group has rejected proposals by the negotiators that Israel has accepted." This week, Britain and Canada, also G7 allies of the United States, were joined by other countries in placing sanctions on two Israeli far-right government ministers to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring the Gaza war to an end. "The United States opposes the implied support of the conference for potential actions including boycotts and sanctions on Israel as well as other punitive measures," the cable read. Israel has repeatedly criticized the conference, saying it rewards Hamas for the attack on Israel, and it has lobbied France against recognizing a Palestinian state. "Nothing surprises me anymore, but I don't see how many countries could step back on their participation," said a European diplomat, who asked for anonymity due to the subject's sensitivity. "This is bullying, and of a stupid type." The U.S. State Department and the French Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
NHK
13 hours ago
- NHK
UN envoy says violence puts Myanmar on 'path to self-destruction'
The UN's special envoy for Myanmar has condemned the continuing violence across the country, even after the devastating earthquake that struck in March. She warned that the conflict is embedding a "crisis within a crisis." Julie Bishop, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Myanmar, spoke to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday in New York. She said the scale of the conflict has increased over the four years since the military takeover in 2021. A major earthquake rocked central Myanmar in March. The military says the quake has left more than 3,700 people dead and over 5,000 injured. The junta and pro-democracy forces declared a temporary ceasefire to prioritize relief efforts. Bishop pointed out, however, that the ceasefire has largely not been observed. She said, "If there is no end to the violence, Myanmar is on a path to self-destruction." Bishop also cited the dire situation of the Muslim minority Rohingya population in the western state of Rakhine. She said they are subject to forced recruitment and other abuse, and called for urgent international support.
NHK
13 hours ago
- NHK
Israel, US react sharply to sanctions against Israeli ministers by 5 nations
Israel has reacted sharply to sanctions imposed on two of its ministers by the governments of five nations. The United States has also criticized the move. Britain, Canada, Norway, Australia and New Zealand on Tuesday announced sanctions targeting Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, including a freeze on their assets and travel bans. In a joint statement, the five countries accused the ministers of "inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank." They also said that the measures "focus on the West Bank, but of course this cannot be seen in isolation from the catastrophe in Gaza." Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on the same day rejected the decision, calling it "outrageous," and adding that the Israeli government would hold a meeting next week to decide on its response to the measures. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the five-nation's move on social media, saying the measures do not advance US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire. Meanwhile, media in Gaza reported on Wednesday that more than 20 people were killed as Israeli forces opened fire near a US-backed aid distribution center in the enclave. The United Nations has harshly criticized a series of attacks near food distribution sites, saying that Israel must "allow the UN safe and unhindered access to bring in aid and distribute it safely."
