“Jerusalem Day,” which was held this year on Sunday, June 5, is billed as a celebration of the city’s “reunification” in 1967, when Israeli forces conquered and occupied the Old City along with the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights. In practice, Jerusalem Day is an opportunity for far-right and racist Jewish-Israelis, to drape themselves in flags, dance in circles, sing, and chant “Death to Arabs!” as they march through East Jerusalem and the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. Most of the Jewish participants are bused in from yeshivas throughout Israel and the West Bank.
Behind police barricades, Palestinian residents of Jerusalem demonstrate against the far-right march through their neighborhood, June 5, 2016. For years physical and verbal violence directed against Palestinians have been a central feature of the “Jerusalem Day” march. (Photo: Activestills)
This year, following two consecutive years in which the Supreme Court Justice ordered police to reign in Jewish participants’ verbal and physical violence against Palestinian residents, police maintained stricter supervision of the march. It was limited in time and, although individual provocative acts still took place, police and ushers were reportedly more vigilant about maintaining order. A police spokesperson said officers arrested two Jewish minors for shouting racist slogans. As marchers made their way along the route of the parade, a counter-demonstration including members of Hadash, the Communist Party of Israel, Meretz and peace and anti-racist groups was cordoned off by police. Unlike last year, this time 50 meters separated the thousands of marchers from the counter-demonstrators who chanted slogans: “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies!” “End the occupation!” and “Jerusalem, the capital of two states – Israel and Palestine!”
Early Sunday morning, the court approved an agreement between the state and the parade’s organizers that the march had to start 15 minutes earlier than scheduled to ensure that no Jewish marchers would be present in the Muslim Quarter should Ramadan begin on Sunday evening (something which is traditionally determined at the last moment, only if the new moon is sighted). According to the court ruling, the last of the marchers would be allowed to enter the Muslim Quarter through Damascus Gate at 6:15 pm and the quarter’s main street had to be cleared by 7 pm. The previous Thursday, a petition had been filed to entirely bar the march from the Muslim Quarter. The petition was filed by Ir Amim (an NGO focusing on life in Jerusalem in light of the occupation) and Amir Cheshin, a former Arab affairs adviser to Jerusalem’s mayor.
Representing the petitioners, Eitay Mack, a human rights lawyer, wrote that “this decision [on the route] is extremely unreasonable and seriously impinges on basic rights that have long been recognized by this honorable court, such as the freedom of worship and the movement of worshipers, of residents and merchants both inside the Muslim Quarter and outside it.” A similar petition to ban the march from the Muslim Quarter was rejected last year, but the court did order police to show zero tolerance towards racist calls, particularly “Death to Arabs!” which has been increasingly heard in recent years. According to Thursday’s petition, last year marchers shouted “Kahane lives!” and “Mohammed is dead!” and managed to sing a song calling for revenge against Palestinians, despite efforts by parade organizers to prevent this. The plaintiffs admitted, however, that during last year’s march, “very few cries of ‘Death to Arabs!'” were heard.
Hadash MK Yousef Jabareen (Joint List) severely criticized the court’s decision to allow the march to enter the Muslim Quarter on the eve of Ramadan. “This is a provocative, racist and violent march the sole purpose of which is to terrorize the Palestinian merchants of the Muslim Quarter,” he said. “On the evening in which Palestinians celebrate Ramadan, a month of tolerance and brotherhood, the police chose, and the Supreme Court approved, to allow marchers to provoke Palestinians, insult them and sow hatred an fear. “Can anyone imagine that the police would allow a similar march of Palestinians to pass through the Jewish Quarter on the eve of Passover?” Jabareen asked. “East Jerusalem is part of the Palestinian lands occupied in 1967, and no march, no matter how racist, will change this.”
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