Calls to "redeem" the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem led a graduation ceremony at an east Jerusalem school on Tuesday, as parents and students hoisted Palestinian flags and vowed to fight Israel.
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The incident took place in a school in Beit Safafa, a Palestinian neighborhood in southeast Jerusalem. The school is governed by the Israeli Education Ministry.
During the ceremony, some nationalistic slogans were chanted by the students and the parents alike, including "In spirit and blood we will redeem al-Aqsa" – call to arms associated with the Muslim pledge to guard the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
The mosque, located on the Temple Mount, is considered the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. The sensitive site in a known flashpoint that often sparks tensions and Palestinian violence.
Relations between the Palestinian residents of Beit Safafa and their Jewish neighbors are considered good. Tuesday's incident raised concerns of a precursor to a wave of new nationalistic protests in the city, the likes of which were seen in the capital prior to May's hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Maor Zemach, head of the right-wing Lach Yerushalayim ("For You, Jerusalem") advocacy group that seeks to safeguard Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, told Israel Hayom that the incident constitutes "grave public incitement that has no place in an Israeli school. Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton must pursue disciplinary action against the school's management."
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