Chanting ‘Death to Arabs,' Israeli nationalists begin an annual march in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM — Chanting 'Death to Arabs' and singing 'May your village burn,' groups of young Israeli Jews made their way through Muslim neighborhoods of Jerusalem's Old City on Monday during an annual march marking Israel 's conquest of the eastern part of the city.
Palestinian shopkeepers closed early and police lined the alleys ahead of the march that often becomes a rowdy and sometimes violent procession of ultranationalist Jews. A police officer raised his arms in celebration at one point, hugging a marcher. It was blazing hot, with temperatures hitting 98 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius) in late afternoon.
Police kept a close watch as demonstrators jumped, danced and sang.
Hours earlier, a small group of protesters, including an Israeli member of parliament, stormed a compound in east Jerusalem belonging to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.
The march commemorates Jerusalem Day, which marks Israel's capture of east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Mideast war. The event threatened to inflame tensions that are rife in the restive city amid nearly 600 days of war in Gaza.
Jerusalem lies at the heart of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Each sees the city as a key part of their national and religious identity. It is one of the most intractable issues of the conflict and is often a flashpoint.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its eternal, undivided capital. Its annexation of east Jerusalem is not internationally recognized. Palestinians want an independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital.
Last year's procession, during the first year of the war in Gaza, saw ultranationalist Israelis attack a Palestinian journalist in the Old City and call for violence against Palestinians. Four years ago, the march helped set off an 11-day war in Gaza.
Tour buses carrying young ultranationalist Jews lined up near entrances to the Old City, bringing hundreds from outside Jerusalem, including settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Police, who called the procession the 'Dance of Flags,' said they had detained a number of people and 'acted swiftly to prevent violence, confrontations and provocations.'
Speaking in an east Jerusalem archaeological park located in a Palestinian neighborhood, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to 'preserve a united, whole Jerusalem, and the sovereignty of Israel.' He said the government was encouraging foreign embassies to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and investing billions of shekels in the city's development.
Volunteers from the pro-peace organization Standing Together and the Free Jerusalem collective, which works with Palestinians in Jerusalem, tried to position themselves between the marchers and residents to prevent violence.
One shopkeeper swept the floor after marchers tipped over his bale of bay leaves. A group of young Jewish Israelis followed a Palestinian woman through the streets, calling her 'charmouta' -- Arabic for 'whore.'
'This is our home, this is our state,' one protester shouted at a Palestinian woman.
'Go away from here!' she responded, in Hebrew.
Increased Jewish visits to a flashpoint holy site
Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the country's police force, visited a hilltop compound holy to Jews and Muslims, where Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are located. One Israeli lawmaker, Yitzhak Kroizer, could be seen praying.
Perceived encroachments by Jews on the site have set off widespread violence on a number of occasions going back decades. Hamas accused Israel of 'desecrating' the site when it launched its Oct. 7, 2023 attack.
'We are marking a holiday for Jerusalem,' Ben-Gvir said, accompanied by other lawmakers and a rabbi. 'There are truly many Jews flooding the Temple Mount. How nice to see that.'
Beyadenu, an activist group that encourages Jewish visits to the site, said dozens of people had ascended to the compound draped in the Israeli flag, and had prayed there.
Since Israel captured the site in 1967, a tenuous understanding between Israeli and Muslim religious authorities at the compound has allowed Jews -- who revere the site as the Temple Mount, the location of the biblical temples -- to visit but not pray there.
Ben-Gvir said he is changing that status quo. Palestinians say it has long been eroding because of an increase in Jewish visits.
'Today, thank God, it is possible to pray on the Temple Mount,' Ben-Gvir said, according to a statement from his office.
The prime minister's office said there has been no change to the status quo. Police said Monday's march would not enter the site.
For many in Israel, Jerusalem Day is a joyous occasion that marks a moment of redemption in their country's history, when access to the key Jewish holy site of the Western Wall was restored and the city was unified. But in recent years, the Jerusalem Day march has been dominated by young nationalist and religious Israelis.
Protesters storm U.N. compound in Jerusalem
UNRWA West Bank coordinator Roland Friedrich said around a dozen Israeli protesters, including Yulia Malinovsky, one of the legislators behind an Israeli law that banned UNRWA, forcefully entered the compound, climbing its main gate in view of Israeli police.
Protesters held a banner calling for the compound to be turned into an Israeli settlement. Israel's housing minister said last year he had instructed the ministry to 'examine how to return the area to the state of Israel and utilize it for housing.'
Israel has accused the agency, the biggest aid provider in Gaza, of being infiltrated by Hamas, allegations the U.N. has denied.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli police.
The compound has stood mainly empty since the end of January, after UNRWA asked staff not to work from there, fearing for their safety. The U.N. says it has not vacated the compound and that it is protected under international law.
Julia Frankel, The Associated Press
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Star
3 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
Two Israeli rights groups say their country is committing genocide in Gaza
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Two prominent Israeli rights groups on Monday said their country is committing genocide in Gaza, the first time that local Jewish-led organizations have made such accusations against Israel during nearly 22 months of war. The claims by B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel add to an explosive debate over whether Israel's military offensive in Gaza — launched in response to Hamas' deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack — amounts to genocide.
Winnipeg Free Press
3 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Two Israeli rights groups say their country is committing genocide in Gaza
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Two prominent Israeli rights groups on Monday said their country is committing genocide in Gaza, the first time that local Jewish-led organizations have made such accusations against Israel during nearly 22 months of war. The claims by B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel add to an explosive debate over whether Israel's military offensive in Gaza — launched in response to Hamas' deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack — amounts to genocide. The Palestinians, their supporters and international human rights groups make that claim, and the International Court of Justice is hearing a genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel. But in Israel, founded in the wake of the Holocaust, even the government's strongest critics have largely refrained from making such accusations. That's because of the deep sensitivities and strong memories of the Nazi genocide of Europe's Jews, and because many in Israel view the war in Gaza as a justified response to the deadliest attack in the country's history and not an attempt at extermination. Shattering a taboo in Israel The rights groups, while prominent and respected internationally, are considered in Israel to be on the political fringe, and their views are not representative of the vast majority of Israelis. But having the allegation of genocide come from Israeli voices shatters a taboo in a society that has been reticent to criticize Israel's conduct in Gaza. Guy Shalev, director of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, said the Jewish-Israeli public often dismisses accusations of genocide as antisemitic or biased against Israel. 'Perhaps human rights groups based in Israel, and coming to this conclusion, is a way to confront that accusation and get people to acknowledge the reality,' he said. Israel asserts that it is fighting an existential war and abides by international law. It has rejected genocide allegations as antisemitic. It is challenging such allegations at the International Court of Justice, and it has rejected the International Criminal Court's allegations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant committed war crimes in Gaza. Both face international arrest warrants. Israel's government on Monday didn't immediately comment on the reports by B'Tselem and PHRI. Israeli officials largely blame civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, saying it uses civilians as shields by embedding militants in residential areas. The reports echo international claims The rights groups, in separate reports released jointly, said Israel's policies in Gaza, statements by senior officials about its goals there and the systematic dismantling of the territory's health system contributed to their conclusion of genocide. Their claims echoed those of previous reports from international rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Like other rights groups, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have not been allowed into Gaza during the war. Their reports are based on testimonies, documents, eyewitnesses and consultations with legal experts. Hamas' attack on Israel that started the war sparked a shift in the country's policy toward Palestinians in Gaza from 'repression and control to destruction and annihilation,' B'Tselem said. The group has long been outspoken about Israel's treatment of Palestinians. It halted cooperation with the military nearly a decade ago, saying the army's investigations into wrongdoing weren't serious, and it has accused Israel of being an apartheid state. The PHRI report was a detailed, legal-medical analysis focusing on what it called the step-by-step dismantling of Gaza's health and life-sustaining systems including electricity, clean water and access to food. Its report says Israel has committed three of the acts of genocide defined by international law, including 'deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.' The Israeli rights groups said repeated statements by Israeli officials and the military endorsing the total destruction, starvation and permanent displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, combined with policies on the ground, have demonstrated that Israel is intentionally trying to destroy Palestinian society. A 'painful' conclusion The term 'genocide' strikes a chord in Israel, where Israelis grow up learning about the Holocaust and hearing survivors' harrowing stories, while promising it would never happen again. The 1948 Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was drawn up in the aftermath of World War II and the murder by Nazi Germany of 6 million Jews. It defines genocide as acts 'committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.' 'As the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, it's very painful for me to be reaching this conclusion,' said Shalev from PHRI. But after growing up in a society where the Holocaust was so important, it demands some kind of responsibility, he said. Until now, Israeli criticism of the war in Gaza has been focused on Netanyahu and whether his wartime decision-making has been politically motivated and delayed the return of hostages — 50 of them still in Gaza. Broader scrutiny of Israel's conduct in Gaza has been limited for multiple reasons. Despite the vast destruction and death in the territory and Israel's growing international isolation, most Israelis have believed for much of the war in its righteousness. And with most Jewish Israelis serving in the army, it's difficult for most people to fathom that their relatives in uniform could be carrying out genocide. Some soldiers, however, have refused to fight in the war. Jeffrey Herf, a historian who has published much on antisemitism, said the allegation of genocide doesn't take into account that there is a war between two parties. He said it ignores Hamas as a military force and Israel's right to defend itself. Israelis' focus is on the hostages, not Palestinians After groups like B'Tselem in recent years accused Israel of apartheid, more mainstream voices in Israel also picked up the claim, although in less sweeping ways. Israeli historian Tom Segev said he's not sure the new reports and their allegations will have an impact on the public. 'The major thing for Israelis is a question of the hostages, not necessarily the fate of the population in Gaza,' he said. But he said what's happening in Gaza is undermining the ideological and moral justification for the existence of Israel. The rights groups said the international community hasn't done enough to protect Palestinians and are calling on the world, including Israelis who have stayed silent, to speak up. 'We have an obligation to do everything we can to speak the truth about this, to stand by the victims,' said Sarit Michaeli, the international director for B'Tselem.
CTV News
4 hours ago
- CTV News
Lawyer calls on Canada to speed up visa approvals as situation worsens in Gaza
ST. JOHN'S — A Toronto immigration lawyer says family members of Canadians are dying in Gaza as the federal immigration department drags it heels approving visas through a special program launched in 2024. Debbie Rachlis said Canada must speed up the approval process for the temporary special measures visa it is offering to members of Palestinian Canadians' families who are trying to flee the violence in Gaza. Rachlis represents dozens of applicants to the program and said she is involved with 'at least five cases' in which people have died waiting for word on their visa. She lobbied for the special measures program as a member of the Gaza Family Reunification Project. 'We are all aware of many, many situations where people who were waiting for visas to come to Canada have died and have been killed,' Rachlis said in a recent interview. That includes people who have died of starvation, or injuries from bombings, and people who have been killed while lining up to get rations, she said. 'They are all preventable and terrible deaths.' Canada opened the multi-step program offering temporary residents visas to members of Canadians' families trapped in Gaza on Jan. 9, 2024. It closed on March 26, after the program's cap of 5,000 visa applications had been accepted for processing. Fewer than 1,200 visas had been granted as of June 21, said Jeffrey MacDonald, a spokesperson for the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. That's less than a quarter of the visas Canada said it would hand out. Eight hundred and forty-one people had arrived in Canada from Gaza as of June 8, MacDonald said in an email. The visa program requires applicants to submit biometric information — including fingerprints and photos — collected in-person at an IRCC office. There is no such office in Gaza. The Canadian Press has spoken to several Palestinian Canadians who paid thousands of dollars for their family members in Gaza to pay private agents for passage across the border in Cairo, where there is a Canadian immigration office to collect biometric data. The Rafah border between Gaza and Egypt has been closed since May 2024. 'The primary challenge continues to be the ability for people to exit Gaza,' MacDonald said. 'Movement out of Gaza remains extremely challenging and may not be possible at this time, as countries and other actors set their own entry and exit requirements.' 'We continue working closely with local authorities — at every level — to facilitate the exit of people in Gaza and to advocate for their safety,' he added. Rachlis noted that other western countries have dropped the biometrics requirement. She wondered why Canada wouldn't do the same, especially as the situation for Palestinians in Gaza worsens. Food experts have warned for months of the risk of famine in Gaza, where Israel has restricted aid because it says Hamas siphons off goods to help bolster its rule, without providing evidence for that claim. Images emerging from Gaza in recent days of emaciated children have fanned global criticism of Israel, including by close allies who have called for an end to the war and the humanitarian catastrophe it has spawned. Last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the Israeli government for its 'failure to prevent the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster in Gaza' and criticized its handling of humanitarian aid in Gaza as a 'violation of international law.' On Sunday, the Israeli military on began a daily 10-hour pause in fighting in three areas of Gaza, to 'increase the scale of humanitarian aid' entering the territory. Health officials in Gaza said at least 37 Palestinians were killed in separate strikes from late Saturday into Sunday, including 22 people seeking aid. The situation in Cairo is also precarious for those waiting for visas, Rachlis said. She has many clients who managed to get to Cairo and complete the biometrics requirement. They've been waiting for a year or more for word on their visa application status, she said. They have no medical care in Egypt and their children cannot go to school, she said. They are largely living off the fundraising efforts of charities and their families in Canada. 'We need to speed up processing for folks who are in Egypt,' she said, adding that she believes much of the delay stems from the 'intense scrutiny' applicants to the visa program are subject to. Applicants are asked to supply their social media accounts, details about scars and other marks on their bodies, information on everyone they are related to — including through marriage — and every passport they have ever had. Last year, The Canadian Press obtained a letter sent to an applicant by a Canadian immigration officer which asks if they had 'ever provided medical care to injured Hamas members.' It is a violation of the Geneva Convention for medical workers to deny care to someone injured in a war zone. Rachlis said families need quicker information about their applications so they can make arrangements and get to safety. 'Families need answers,' she said. 'They need answers about what happened with this program and why it seems to have been set up to fail.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2025. — With files from The Associated Press Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press
