Palestinian shopkeepers had closed up early and police lined the narrow alleys ahead of the march that often becomes a rowdy and sometimes violent procession of ultranationalist Jews. A policeman raised his arms in celebration at one point, recognizing a marcher and going in for a hug.
The march commemorates the so-called Jerusalem Day — which marks Israel’s occupation of east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites, in 1967. The event, set to begin later in the day, threatens to inflame tensions that are already rife in the restive city amid nearly 600 days of Israeli genocidal war in Gaza.
Last year’s procession, which came during the first year of the war in Gaza, saw terrorist 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 brutal Israeli war on Gaza.
Tour buses carrying young ultranationalist Jews lined up near entrances to the Old City, bringing hundreds from outside Jerusalem, including illegal colonial settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Police claimed they would maintain order and urged the public to refrain from taunting and violence. Volunteers from the pro-peace organizations Standing Together and Free Jerusalem tried to position themselves between the marchers and residents to prevent violence.
“This is our home, this is our state," shouted one protester at a Palestinian woman.
“Go away from here!" she responded, in Hebrew.
Storming Al Aqsa Mosque
Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the country’s police force, stormed Al Aqsa Mosque on Monday.
Perceived encroachments by colonial settlers on the holy site have set off widespread violence on a number of occasions going back decades.
“We are marking a holiday for Jerusalem,” Ben-Gvir said Monday at the site, accompanied by other lawmakers and a rabbi. “There are truly many Jews flooding the Temple Mount. How nice to see that”, referring to Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Beyadenu, an activist group that encourages setterles incursion to the Islamic site, said dozens of people had ascended to the holy compound Monday draped in the Israeli flag, and had prayed there.
Since Israel occupied the site in 1967, a tenuous understanding between Israeli and Muslim religious authorities at the compound has allowed Jews, to visit but not pray there.
Protesters storm UN compound in Jerusalem
A group of protesters, including an Israeli member of parliament, meanwhile, stormed a compound in east Jerusalem belonging to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.
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.
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 UN says it has not vacated the compound and that it is protected under international law.
Palestinian warning
The Jerusalem Governorate has issued a warning of a severe escalation expected in the occupied city, amid ongoing efforts by Israeli authorities to organize a series of colonial and Judaization activities aimed at imposing Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and consolidating the occupation by force—actions that blatantly violate international law and United Nations resolutions.
In a statement published by the Palestinian News Agency, the governorate said the annual march is part of a systematic provocative agenda, accompanied by attacks on Jerusalemites and chanting of racist slogans against Muslims and Christians, all under heavy protection by Israeli police who will enforce a full closure of the area.
Meanwhile, Hamas resistance group said in a statement that the so-called "Temple Organizations Union" released an inflammatory video featuring 13 rabbis, prominent leaders of religious Zionism, calling for a large-scale storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque on Monday. This is part of the occupying forces’ ongoing religious war aimed at Judaizing Jerusalem.
Hamas emphasized that the unconditional support and protection provided by the far-right Israeli government to the colonial settlers encourages them to escalate their attacks on Al-Aqsa.
Moreover, the Palestinian National Council, through its president Rouhi Fattouh, warned of the repercussions of extremist Jewish religious groups’ demands to open the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque and storm it during the Israeli "Flag March."
* This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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