Some 70,000 Jewish nationalists marched through and around Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday afternoon to mark Jerusalem Day, some of them chanting racist slogans and clashing with Palestinians and police.
Throughout the parade in the Old City, hundreds of marchers chanted “May your villages burn” and “Death to Arabs.”
“Shuafat is up in flames!” some Jewish Israeli participants called out, referring to Muhammad Abu Khdeir, a teenage resident of that Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem who was burned to death by Jewish extremists in 2014.
Sporadic clashes broke out between right-wing Israeli marchers and Palestinians throughout the day. At least 60 people were detained for violence, according to the Israel Police. Five Israeli police officers, three Israelis and 40 Palestinians were wounded, according to police and medics.
The procession was seen as the largest Jerusalem Day march in years, with tens of thousands of Jewish Israelis swamping downtown Jerusalem and heading to Damascus Gate, where a wave of blue-and-white flags could be seen stretching well into the distance.
“Many Jews over the past year have awoken to nationalism and to the importance of Damascus Gate,” said Nehama Dina, 21, a resident of Tekoa in the West Bank.
Before the march, more than 2,600 Jewish Israelis were granted entry to the Temple Mount, a record-breaking figure. The holy site — Judaism’s most sacred sanctuary and Islam’s third-holiest — is a deeply contested flashpoint between Jews and Muslims.
Despite being a national holiday, Jerusalem Day, which marks Israel’s conquest of the Old City and East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War, is celebrated nowadays mainly by right-wing religious Jews.
But for hours during the long, tense day, the Old City felt like a powder keg on the verge of exploding. Police deployed some 2,000 officers to secure the rally, anticipating the tensions, and plainclothes security officers dotted the Old City’s alleyways.
From the late morning until well into the evening, sporadic brawls broke out between Israeli marchers and local Palestinians. Police said at least three people were detained during the clashes.
“I will take one revenge for both my eyes against Palestine — damn them,” a group of Jewish teenagers sang in the Old City, modifying a biblical verse sung by Samson about the Philistines.
Other participants hurled slurs at Palestinian journalists on the scene, calling them “whores” and “dogs.” A large group of Jewish marchers mobbed a section of the plaza cordoned off for media, making obscene gestures at Arab journalists.
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