Gazeta Lodz - Israelis chant threats, anti-Palestinian slogans at Jerusalem Day march

Every year, tens of thousands of Israelis -- many of them teenagers and young adults -- parade through Jerusalem to celebrate what Israeli authorities call the "reunification" of Jerusalem following Israel's capture and annexation of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

The annexation of east Jerusalem, home to a predominantly Palestinian population, is not recognised by the United Nations, which considers it illegal under international law.

Over the years, the annual march has repeatedly descended into violence, with groups of mostly young ultranationalists targeting Palestinians with racist chants, intimidation and assaults.

This year's march comes against the backdrop of the Iran war and a ceasefire in Gaza, which sees near-daily violations.

Mustafa, a Palestinian resident of the Old City's Via Dolorosa, said young ultranationalist Israelis had broken into the courtyard of his home, breaking glass and chanting "Death to Arabs".

"This is a black day... I was inside the home, when around 20 settlers came inside, they broke the doors," he told AFP.

"If you push them, you'll go to prison... you can't do anything."

- 'Gets worse every year' -

Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, marked the occasion by visiting the highly sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest site.

Known to Jews as the Temple Mount, it is also Judaism's holiest place.

"Fifty-nine years after the liberation of Jerusalem, I raised the Israeli flag on the Temple Mount, and we can say with pride: we have restored sovereignty over the Temple Mount," Ben Gvir said on Telegram.

An AFP correspondent saw Ben Gvir, flanked by bodyguards, marching with the crowds and posing for photos.

Most Palestinian shopkeepers in the Old City had pulled down their metal shutters and deserted the stone alleyways by late morning.

A handful of shops remained open under the protection of activists from the Israeli-Palestinian grassroots movement Standing Together, who deployed across the Old City in an effort to shield Palestinian residents and businesses from harassment and attacks.

Videos on social media showed activists being shoved and surrounded by youths wearing matching T-shirts emblazoned with Jerusalem-themed slogans.

In one video, the youths hurled plastic chairs at a Palestinian shopkeeper while chanting "Arab sons of whores".

The shopkeeper appeared to throw one chair back before raising a stick in warning.

"The situation gets worse every year," one Palestinian shopkeeper told AFP, refusing to give his name for fear of reprisals.

- Show of solidarity -

Crowds chanted "Death to Arabs" and "May your villages burn" under the watch of Israeli police deployed throughout the area, according to an AFP correspondent and online footage.

Some people clapped rhythmically, while others pounded on the metal shutters of closed Palestinian shops.

Authorities sometimes order Palestinian shops in the Old City to shut for the march, which ends at the Western Wall -- the last remnant of the Second Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, the holiest site where Jews are allowed to pray.

Earlier in the day, dozens of Israeli peace activists handed flowers to passersby.

Ilan Perez, 52, said he wanted to "show my sympathy and love with flowers".

"It was important for me to come in order to show some solidarity with the local community and say that as a Jew, as a Zionist, as someone who wants a Jewish state here, I want them to be part of it and be part of the nation with equal rights," said Perez, who works in the tech industry and had come from the city of Raanana, near Tel Aviv.

Rula Daoud, co-director of Standing Together, said the march was becoming more violent every year, particularly after Hamas's October 7 attacks on Israel.

She accused the police of not intervening to curb the violence.

Marchers also confronted journalists, shoving them and blocking them from filming.

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H.Kolodziej--GL