The Jewish ultranationalist march that was supposed to cross the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City barely managed to gather a hundred people on Thursday evening, unable to advance even more than 50 meters. Their goal was to claim absolute control of the city by the Jews and especially of the holy places of the believers of Allah. A large police force that outnumbered them stopped the protesters and took away the banners they were carrying with occasional scuffles. but no arguments. Some, like Jako, 15 years old and with his face covered, made their intentions clear: “A bullet in the head for every terrorist,” their sign read. “We have to kill all the Arabs,” he commented bluntly.
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Minutes later, the box decorated with a shiny gold projectile, which other participants carried under the same motto, was already in the hands of the agents. Their only weapon of protest was singing and shouting before they finally dispersed an hour later. Participants mixed historical demands with the current war situation that the country is experiencing after the October 7 Hamas attack.
Police accused the protesters of “violating” the agreement for the march with “racist chants” and then attempting to advance without permission, a statement said.
“We will march like we marched 2,000 years ago,” Yehuda Sherez, 63, said at the rally site, referring to the goal of reclaiming what Jews call the Temple Mount, a site they place on the Western Wall and which today supports the promenade that was occupied for 15 centuries by the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site for Muslims. “Let them bring everything to Mecca. We help them,” he said with a broad smile through his long gray beard. Sisters Atara and Arial Serwatien, 16 and 21 years old respectively, originally from the United States and covered in Israeli flags, criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for alleged lukewarmness toward Arabs. “They destroyed our temple, now they should decolonize it,” they defended, without rejecting the destruction of the mosques and the other buildings on the esplanade.
Israeli police intervene to break up the demonstration of Jewish ultras in the Old City of Jerusalem.Jaime Villanueva
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The most right-wing government in Israel’s 75-year history, held at bay by the October attack that left 1,200 dead and the war at bay, had approved the march in principle. The decision hinged on an extremist, Itamar Ben Gvir, who holds the national security portfolio. After the approval, there were calls for the demonstration to be banned, for example from opposition leader Yair Lapid. “It is a blatant attempt by the Kahanists to set fire to new fronts and cause more death and destruction,” he said on his profile on the social network X (formerly Twitter). He was referring to the organizers of the demonstration, supporters of a section of the Jewish racist and extremist Meir Kahane, a rabbi murdered in 1990 who defended the expulsion of all Palestinians from his land and whose student Ben Gvir is. This is an “ultranationalist provocation” that should have no place in the current war situation, the Haaretz newspaper said in its editorial on Thursday, openly calling on Netanyahu to prevent this.
The goal of the far-right groups, in addition to controlling the holy sites, is to put an end to the Wafq, a religious institution in Jerusalem that is dependent on the Jordanian monarchy and retains authority over the mosque promenade, although it has not existed since 1967 Israel the entire city. The day chosen for the so-called Maccabees March coincides with the beginning of the celebrations of the Festival of Lights, or Hanukkah. There are eight nights that commemorate the revolt of the Maccabees and the declaration of independence by the Jews in the second century BC. is remembered.
The permission for the ultra-Jewish march contrasts with the restrictions on the Israeli Arab population since the October 7 attack, as demonstrations against the military operation in Gaza are not allowed and hundreds of people have been arrested for expressing their solidarity on social networks The dead of the conflict expressed themselves. In addition, free access for Muslims to the mosque esplanade is hindered.
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