Israeli ministers have doubled down on their backing for the ‘Flag March’ set to run through the heart of Jerusalem on Sunday after Israeli police confirmed that the controversial nationalist celebration will be allowed to go ahead, The New Arab reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called for “business as usual” for the march, according to The Jerusalem Post, despite warnings it could reignite violence in the holy city.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett took a final decision that the flag march in Jerusalem’s Old City will take place as decided beforehand, with police at maximum alert across the country https://t.co/GZ0pcpA5z3 by @RinaBassist
— Al-Monitor (@AlMonitor) May 28, 2022
In a public address this week, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that Israel would “hold whatever kind of march we want to in our capital”.
“You will not threaten our sovereignty,” he added.
🇵🇸#Palestine || "A good Arab is a https://t.co/CvhmNsDoLH Arab" , " May your village burn" , "The Arab is a son of a b*ch". This is actually what Israeli settlers chanted all the time during the so-called 'flag march" in #Jerusalem yesterday. @activestills pic.twitter.com/0Dpir72QkT
— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) June 16, 2021
Gantz’s determined rhetoric around the Flag March is a decided shift in tone from last year’s ‘Jerusalem Day’ celebrations.
In June 2021, the defense minister said that he would demand the right-wing nationalist parade through Jerusalem’s Old City be called off if it “requires extraordinary security measures and endangers public order and diplomatic processes.”
#BREAKING || Occupation War Minister Benny Gantz: The flag march that the settlers will organize in Jerusalem next Sunday will take place on its normal course, despite the threats of the Palestinian factions.#IsraeliApartheid #IsraeliTerrorism #FreePalestine
— Palestine in En/Kr 🇰🇷🇬🇧 (@PalestineKren) May 24, 2022
Last year Israeli extremists made their way through the Old City of Jerusalem, chanting ‘death to Arabs’, ‘may your villages burn’, and assaulting Palestinians in a much-delayed event with a lower turnout than expected.
Thousands of Israeli nationalists participate in the controversial annual march, waving Israeli flags, singing nationalist songs, and often chanting anti-Arab slogans as they pass through Palestinian neighborhoods.
(The New Arab, PC, Social Media)
