Clashes as Israel marks East Jerusalem capture

AFPJerusalemIsraeli nationalists and police clashed with Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem yesterday as crowds of Jewish hardliners marched across the city to mark the 48th anniversary of its capture. Known as Jerusalem Day, the anniversary marks Israel’s seizure in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexation of mainly Arab East Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community. Police said that two officers were wounded by Palestinian stone throwers and at least four protesters arrested near the walled Old City’s Damascus Gate.  Demonstrators were dispersed by baton-wielding police, some on horseback. A police statement said that in one incident “several dozen Muslims scuffled with a group of Jews”. Onlookers said that at least two Palestinians were wounded in various clashes and video footage showed a man being taken away on a stretcher by Red Crescent ambulance staff. Police would not say how many jubilant Zionists were descending on the Old City’s Muslim Quarter on their way to pray at the Western Wall Jewish holy site but said “large crowds” were expected. “They are coming here with the support  of an extremist government that paid for their buses,” a Palestinian woman, Muna Barbar, said outside Damascus Gate. The Palestinians want the eastern sector of the city as the capital of their promised state, and vigorously oppose any attempt to extend Israeli control. But Israeli leaders have repeatedly vowed that the city will never again be split, calling it their “eternal, indivisible” capital. “Israel has always been the capital of the Jewish people alone and not of any other people,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at an official Jerusalem Day ceremony. “A divided Jerusalem is a past memory: the future belongs to a complete Jerusalem which will not be divided again.” Jerusalem Day is marked by a series of state ceremonies and an annual march through western Jerusalem and into the east side, which is predominantly attended by nationalist hardliners.  Every year, police deploy in strength to secure the march, which frequently provokes clashes. This year, two non-governmental organisations appealed to the Israeli High Court of Justice to change the route so the march would not pass through the Muslim Quarter. But last week, the court rejected the appeal, noting it did so “with a heavy heart”. In their ruling, the justices stressed there should be “zero tolerance” of anyone involved in violence, and that police should arrest anyone chanting “death to Arabs.” Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said “thousands of police” were in and around the Old City. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said both uniformed and undercover officers were on the streets. “The police will show zero tolerance to any display of physical or verbal violence, will act with every means at its disposal against anyone disturbing the peace or rioting, who will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” she said.  Anti-racism group Tag Meir held a counter-demonstration outside city hall to protest against what it called the “march of hate”. About a hundred participated, under the eye of a large police contingent and there were no disturbances.    The group said the annual march had become “a focus for extremist groups” and was routinely accompanied by “racist slurs and insults, destruction of property and physical violence against the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem”. “This year we say a loud and clear ‘No to the violence, the hatred and the incitement’ which threaten the delicate fabric of daily life in Jerusalem,” it said. The group said its supporters would walk through the Muslim Quarter handing out flowers to residents as a gesture of peace and co-existence. It was one of the two NGOs which unsuccessfully petitioned the Supreme Court to change the route of the march.