Uri Weltmann, national field director for Standing Together, an organization of Jewish and Palestinian peace activists, was tense. His group had gathered to resist tens of thousands of far-right Jewish marchers heading for occupied East Jerusalem's Old City.

'Jerusalem Day', marked by Jewish Israelis every year to celebrate the 1967 capture and subsequent illegal occupation of the city, has become an opportunity for thousands to be bussed in from across Israel and the occupied West Bank to participate in the 'Flag March', where they maraud through the Old City and attack Palestinians – as well as Jewish peace activists.

This year's event on Thursday saw fighting break out even before the march officially began, as ultranationalist Israelis – many of them young teenagers – attacked Palestinians in the Christian Quarter. The Israelis vandalised property, and Israeli police forced Palestinian shop owners to close.

'It's gotten much more extreme since October 7,' said Weltmann, referring to the Hamas-led attack on Israel in 2023, which led to Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.

Weltmann and approximately 200 other Standing Together activists, wearing purple vests, attempted to stand between the far-right Jewish marchers and Palestinians, but were often attacked themselves.

The ultranationalist marchers have the full support of the Israeli regime. Earlier in the day, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir led a large group of Jewish Israelis into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, where he displayed the Israeli flag in front of the Dome of the Rock.

Jordan condemned Ben-Gvir's stunt, with the Foreign Ministry calling it a 'blatant violation of international law, an unacceptable provocation, and a flagrant breach of the historical and legal status quo'.

'There's a deeply confrontational element to the march,' researcher Eram Tzidkiyahu said. 'It's not enough for us to celebrate our own victories. It's about celebrating our victories in the living rooms of the people who lost. Celebrating on your own just doesn't have the same baggage. It's about going and chanting from the prayer book, affirming that you are the chosen people, deliberately within the Muslim Quarter.'

Israeli police have often done little to prevent attacks on Palestinians during the Flag March, and few Jewish Israelis have been punished for the many crimes committed.

'Ben-Gvir is not a clown. He's Israel: 2026,' said Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at the Ir Amim activist group. 'He's part of a government and society that, despite wars with Iran and Lebanon, still prioritises the removal of Palestinians wherever they may be above everything else.'

Source: www.aljazeera.com