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SvennoJ on 05 June 2024
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Palestinian journalist assaulted by Israeli right-wing activists during Jerusalem Day march





Haaretz reporter attacked by Israelis in Jerusalem’s ‘Flag Day’

The daily Israeli newspaper has said that journalist Nir Hasson was attacked by a group of young Israelis taking part in Jerusalem’s Flag Parade.

According to Haaretz, several assailants knocked Hasson to the ground and kicked him, until Border Police officers intervened.

Every year, the parade attracts thousands of national-religious Jews, many of them young men, who aggressively march with Israeli flags through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and engage in acts of provocation, violence, and destruction of Palestinian property with little police intervention.



‘Direct intention to set fire’ at Flag March

Sapir Sluzker Amran, an activist and human rights lawyer, says the Israeli right-wing has been holding the Flag March for years and “it’s always provocative”, but this year “there’s a direct intention to set fire.”

She told Al Jazeera that National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the rest of the right-wing ministers are trying to do all they can to stop the captives deal and the ceasefire recently promoted by Biden.

“They’re using this parade and they’re using the route going through Damascus Gate, inside the Old City confronting and using violence against Palestinians to escalate the situation so that we have an excuse to continue the war,” she said.

“Even though it’s not part of the route of the parade, they’re going to insist on going to Al-Aqsa to pray there,” Amran added.

“According to the leading rabbis, it is forbidden for Jews right now to go pray in Al-Aqsa and they’re still doing it because they can and because they consider themselves as the landlords as they say, so they came to prove a lesson to the Palestinians today.”

 

‘Death to Arabs’: Israelis march through Palestinian part of Jerusalem

Thousands of mostly ultranationalist Israelis are participating in the annual “Jerusalem Day” march through a dense Palestinian neighbourhood in Jerusalem, with some stoking wartime tensions and chanting “Death to Arabs.”

The annual event marks Israel’s occupation of east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in 1967.

The marchers also chanted anti-Muslim slogans outside of the Damascus Gate, a central gathering place for Palestinians in occupied east Jerusalem.


Israelis rampage through the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City on an Israeli holiday celebrating the occupation of east Jerusalem in 1967, Wednesday, June 5

Israel is no better than Nazi Germany.

This year’s Israeli Flag March ‘much more violent’

    This is a much more violent Flag Day march than in previous years.

    Almost as soon as the ultra-nationalist people arrived in occupied East Jerusalem, they started attacking Palestinians. Young kids were attacking older Palestinian women. We’ve seen pictures of that – they were attacking shops, running into the shops.

    The police simply lost control. They asked the Palestinians to shut their shops because they couldn’t control these people.

    This year, journalists have been attacked, but not just Palestinian journalists, Israeli journalists have also been attacked.

    These people are in effect saying and celebrating that they’ve occupied East Jerusalem. They say, “This is our territory, but you’re not going to have any part of this; in fact we want rid of every single Palestinian.”

    The police have only ever arrested the Palestinians, and they’ve done this in previous years. The police aren’t there to protect those being attacked; they’re trying to keep control of the attackers.

    Thousands of Israelis take part in Jerusalem Day march

    Israelis march through the alleyways of Jerusalem’s Old City to the Western Wall, waving Israeli flags on Jerusalem Day to commemorate the establishment of Israeli control over the city.


    Israeli border police gather during the annual Jerusalem Day march

    Any anti-war or anti-government protest and the riot police is out in full force attacking demonstrators with tear gas, batons and water cannons. Here it's just the regular border police standing idly by.

    Far-right minister Ben-Gvir: ‘Jerusalem is ours’

    Thousands of Israeli nationalists are marching through annexed East Jerusalem.

    Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said at the march: “We send a message to Hamas: Jerusalem is ours. Damascus gate is ours. The Temple Mount is ours. With the hand of God, the full victory is ours.”

    Marchers shouted, “The eternal people aren’t scared. May your village burn.”

    Others chanted, “The people of Israel live on. All Arabs can suck it.”

    Palestinian Zaki Abu Muhammad, 52, said: “I am against closing our shops while the procession passes through the Old City, but people are thinking about protecting their children.”


    Israelis mark ‘Jerusalem Day’, celebrating the capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 war