Israeli nationalists march in Jerusalem, chant anti-Arab slogans, storm UN compound

Young ultranationalist Israelis marched through Muslim quarters of Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday, chanting “Death to Arabs” and “May your village burn,” hours before the start of the annual Jerusalem Day parade.

The event commemorates Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 war, but its nationalist overtones and history of incitement have long made it a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

In anticipation of the march, Palestinian shopkeepers shuttered early and Israeli police lined the narrow alleyways of the Old City. At one point, a police officer was seen warmly greeting a marcher, highlighting the celebratory tone among participants, despite the heavy police presence.

Meanwhile, a group of Israeli demonstrators, including a sitting member of parliament, forcefully entered a compound belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in east Jerusalem. The UN compound, mostly empty since January due to security threats, remains under UN ownership and is protected by international law. UNRWA’s West Bank coordinator Roland Friedrich said Israeli lawmaker Yulia Malinovsky was among those who climbed over the gate in view of Israeli police. Authorities offered no immediate comment.

Jerusalem lies at the heart of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, who each see the city as a key part of their national and religious identity. It is one of the most intractable issues of the conflict and often emerges as a flashpoint.

Last year’s procession, which came 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 said 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.

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 flashpoint hilltop compound holy to Jews and Muslims, where the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are located today. 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.

“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.” Beyadenu, an activist group that encourages Jewish visits to the site, said dozens of people had ascended to the holy compound on Monday 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 says he is changing that status quo. Palestinians already say it has long been eroding because of an increase in Jewish visits to the site.

“Today, thank God, it is possible to pray on the Temple Mount,” Ben-Gvir said at the site, according to a statement from his office.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said in the past there has been no change to the status quo. Police said that Monday’s march would not enter the site. Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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.

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 over recent years, the Jerusalem Day march in the city has become dominated by young nationalist and religious Israelis and on some occasions has descended into violence.

Protesters storm UN 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.

Israel has accused the agency, which is the biggest aid provider in Gaza, of being infiltrated by Hamas, allegations denied by the UN.

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 UN says it has not vacated the compound and that it is protected under international law.

With inputs from agencies