Clashes and tensions a Jerusalem, where today the ‘March of the flags, Jewish nationalistic demonstration – which celebrates the reunification of the city under Israeli sovereignty. According to police estimates, approx 26 thousand people, three thousand agents mobilized. The police accomplished 21 arrests.
The short began at Damascus Gate and it passed for the Arab quarter of the Old Town, to arrive later at Western Wall. Even before the start, there were incidents with Palestinians near the gate. The premier Naftali Bennett ordered the police to “show zero-tolerance in the face of all kinds of violence or provocations by extremist elements, including the organization La Familia”, the club of ultra supporters of the football team Betar Jerusalem identified with the far right. “Most of the participants in today’s March of flags – added Bennett – came to celebrate. But there is also a minority that wants to stir up, set fire to”.
According to the media, members of La Familia and the far-right organization ‘Lehavà’ chanted anti-Arab racist slogans and attacked Palestinian passers-by in East Jerusalem. The day began with the first incidents between police and Palestinian demonstrators barricaded on the Esplanade of Mosques (the Temple Mount for Judaism). A place – the third holy for Islam and the first for Jews – which saw a record Jewish presence with around 2,600 people (including the radical right-wing leader Itamar Ban Gvir) and among them some to wave Israeli flags and say prayersboth prohibited by the status quo that rules the place.