The official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation revealed – today, Thursday – that the occupation police have approved the passage of the Israeli “flag march” next week from the Damascus Gate area, east of Jerusalem.
The march is expected to be held next Wednesday, and it commemorates the occupation of East Jerusalem during the June 1967 war. It usually includes racist chants against Arabs, and usually causes tensions in the city.
Thousands of Israeli settlers and right-wingers participate in the march, which begins in the west of Jerusalem and passes through Damascus Gate, one of the gates of the Old City, east of the city.
Then, the march heads to Al-Wad Street in the Old City, reaching the “Buraq Wall.”
Participants in the march raise Israeli flags and chant anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab slogans, including “Death to Arabs.”
The broadcasting authority said, “Next week, the flag march will pass through Damascus Gate, as happened in previous years, with the exception of one year, and the police agreed to that.”
She pointed out that tens of thousands participated in the march last year, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and then-Energy and current Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz, amid heavy guarding from thousands of police officers.
The Palestinians say that Israel is working intensively to Judaize Jerusalem, including Al-Aqsa Mosque, and to erase its Arab and Islamic identity.
They cling to the east of the city as the capital of their hoped-for state, based on international legitimacy resolutions, which do not recognize Israel’s occupation of the city or its annexation in 1981.
The march comes at a time when, since October 7, the occupation has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip and a noticeable escalation in the West Bank.
