This demonstration takes place in a context of strong tension due to the conflict between Israel and Palestinian forces, which has resulted in around 200 deaths this year, 35 of them in a war between May 9 and 13 in the Gaza Strip.
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Palestinians in the east of the city have closed the doors of their establishments and are prohibited from entering through the Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, a sector annexed by Israel, to give way to the protesters.
AFP correspondents saw some Israeli nationalists attack journalists with bottles and stones, while others shouted “death to the Arabs”. Shortly before, they saw young Jews spit at Palestinians and attack one of them.
In the Gaza Strip, thousands of people gathered at the border, many of them waving Palestinian flags, while the Israeli army used gas to disperse those who approached the barrier.
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A Palestinian security source said Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic movement that governs Gaza, launched a “warning rocket” into the sea.
“Provocative” march
The annexation of eastern Jerusalem and the Old City was never recognized by the international community.
On Wednesday, Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, criticized the organization of this “provocative” march, which he considers proof of “the Israeli government’s approval of the views of Jewish extremists.”
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Hamas condemned “the Zionist occupation’s campaign against our Palestinian people in occupied Jerusalem.” The protesters are “a danger, they knock on the doors of stores and our homes,” declared Abu al Abed, 72 years old.
This celebration takes place “3.000 years after it was founded by King David, 75 years after it was refounded as the capital of the reborn State of Israel, and 56 years after it was reunified”, declared this Thursday the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Jerusalem is ours forever,” Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right Israeli minister, present during the march, told journalists.
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The demonstration, which traditionally crosses the Old City of Jerusalem, must end at the Western Wall, a sacred site for Jews, located below the Esplanade of the Mosques, the third sacred site of Islam.
The esplanade is built on the Temple Mount, the holiest site for Jews, who can visit it but cannot pray.
2.500 police officers
In 2021, and after weeks of violence in Jerusalem that left dozens of Palestinians injured, an 11-day war broke out between Hamas and Israel during the march.
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In 2022, 79 people were injured in clashes between security forces and Palestinians.
This year, Israeli police said they sent 2.500 officers to Jerusalem to ensure public order.
For Tom Nissani, a 34-year-old Israeli who defends pilgrims' visits to the Temple Mount, Jerusalem “is our capital, we must show it, rejoice and fight for it”.
In contrast, an Israeli pacifist group distributed flowers to Arab traders in the Old City in the morning to support them and protest the closure of their businesses.
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