Far-right marchers assault Palestinians as Israel marks taking of Jerusalem

[ad_1] Wyre Davies Reporting fromDamascus Gate, Jerusalem <img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/4dd8/live/ee0ca220-3a52-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/4dd8/live/ee0ca220-3a52-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/4dd8/live/ee0ca220-3a52-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/4dd8/live/ee0ca220-3a52-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/4dd8/live/ee0ca220-3a52-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/4dd8/live/ee0ca220-3a52-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/4dd8/live/ee0ca220-3a52-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/4dd8/live/ee0ca220-3a52-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="Getty Images Israeli police remove a right-wing activist in Jerusalem's Old City from a crowd during the Jerusalem Day march, " class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Getty Photographs Israeli police take away a right-wing activist in Jerusalem's Previous Metropolis

Crowds of far-right Israelis chanted insults and assaulted Palestinians throughout an annual parade for Jerusalem Day on Monday.

Chants of "demise to Arabs" and nationalistic slogans have been repeated through the occasion, which commemorates Israeli forces taking Palestinian-majority East Jerusalem through the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict.

Violence broke out as ultranationalist Jews streamed into Palestinian areas of Jerusalem's walled Previous Metropolis.

Opposition Chief Yair Lapid mentioned the occasion had develop into a competition of "hatred and racism", including it was "a shame and an insult to Judaism".

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/5ac0/live/01032270-3a51-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/5ac0/live/01032270-3a51-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/5ac0/live/01032270-3a51-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/5ac0/live/01032270-3a51-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/5ac0/live/01032270-3a51-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/5ac0/live/01032270-3a51-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/5ac0/live/01032270-3a51-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/5ac0/live/01032270-3a51-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="AFP via Getty Images Right-wing activists hold a black, white and red banner saying "67 - Jerusalem in our hands; 2025 - Gaza in our hands."" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> AFP by way of Getty Photographs Proper-wing activists maintain a banner saying "67 - Jerusalem in our arms; 2025 - Gaza in our arms"

Israeli police have been deployed as violence broke out within the walled Previous Metropolis of Occupied East Jerusalem shortly after noon.

Hundreds of nationalist Israelis descended to Damascus Gate, one of many essential entrances. Proper-wing activists held banners that learn "67 - Jerusalem in our arms; 2025 - Gaza in our arms".

Arab merchants within the Muslim Quarter who had but to shut their outlets have been harassed by younger Israeli males, witnesses mentioned.

Chants of "Might your village burn" and "Your property will probably be ours" have been heard all through the march.

Aggressive marchers have been detained and faraway from the Previous Metropolis by Israeli police.

Nationwide safety minister Itamar Ben Gvir, of the Jewish Energy celebration, referred to as for the demise penalty for "terrorists" in an tackle to the crowds.

Gvir additionally visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest web site in Islam and recognized by Jews because the Temple Mount. Jews revere it as the situation of two Biblical Temples and it's the holiest web site in Judaism.

The compound is run by a Jordanian Islamic belief. Jews are allowed to go to however not pray there.

A spokesman for the Palestinian presidency, based mostly within the West Financial institution, condemned the march and Ben Gvir's go to to Al-Aqsa.

Israel's ongoing conflict in Gaza, "repeated incursions into the Al-Aqsa mosque compound and provocative acts comparable to elevating the Israeli flag in occupied Jerusalem threaten the soundness of your entire area," Nabil Abu Rudeineh mentioned in an announcement.

In a cupboard assembly on Monday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to maintain Jerusalem "united, complete, and beneath Israeli sovereignty".

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/94b2/live/2cb034c0-3a52-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/94b2/live/2cb034c0-3a52-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/94b2/live/2cb034c0-3a52-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/94b2/live/2cb034c0-3a52-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/94b2/live/2cb034c0-3a52-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/94b2/live/2cb034c0-3a52-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/94b2/live/2cb034c0-3a52-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/94b2/live/2cb034c0-3a52-11f0-a0ad-430a6133b996.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images Two Israeli officers straddle a man on the ground in East Jerusalem as the Jerusalem Day parade becomes violent" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Getty Photographs Israeli police detain an Israeli man close to the the Al-Aqsa mosque

Left-wing opposition chief Yair Golan described photographs of violence within the Previous Metropolis as "surprising".

"That is what hatred, racism and bullying appear like," he mentioned in an announcement on X.

"We'll combat for Jerusalem for all of us, Jews, Christians and Muslims, secular and spiritual.

"Jerusalem belongs to all those that love her. We'll combat for her and restore her as a metropolis for us all."

Lapid, one other opposition chief, added: "There may be nothing Jewish about this violence. The federal government ministers who stay silent within the face of those occasions are complicit on this shame."

Yearly 1000's of Israelis march a route via Jerusalem and the annexed Previous Metropolis, ending on the Western Wall, the holiest web site the place Jews are allowed to wish in Jerusalem. On Sunday, a big Israeli flag was unfurled on the Western Wall plaza.

The parade mark Israel's seize of East Jerusalem within the 1967 conflict and the "unification" of a metropolis that the Israeli authorities says is their everlasting capital.

Palestinians additionally need Jerusalem as their future capital and far of the worldwide group regards East Jerusalem as Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory.

This 12 months's Flag March once more coincided with the conflict in Gaza and escalating Israeli navy operations towards Palestinian militants within the West Financial institution.

Israel launched a navy marketing campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas's cross-border assault on 7 October 2023, by which about 1,200 folks have been killed and 251 others have been taken hostage. Fifty-seven are nonetheless being held, about 20 of whom are assumed to be alive.

At the very least 53,939 folks, together with at the least 16,500 kids, have been killed in Gaza since then, in keeping with the territory's well being ministry.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/975c/live/ff5a48e0-3a5a-11f0-8051-811a715d5924.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/975c/live/ff5a48e0-3a5a-11f0-8051-811a715d5924.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/975c/live/ff5a48e0-3a5a-11f0-8051-811a715d5924.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/975c/live/ff5a48e0-3a5a-11f0-8051-811a715d5924.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/975c/live/ff5a48e0-3a5a-11f0-8051-811a715d5924.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/975c/live/ff5a48e0-3a5a-11f0-8051-811a715d5924.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/975c/live/ff5a48e0-3a5a-11f0-8051-811a715d5924.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/975c/live/ff5a48e0-3a5a-11f0-8051-811a715d5924.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Israelis celebrate Jerusalem Day at Damascus Gate" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Israelis have fun Jerusalem Day at Damascus Gate