Due to ongoing tension and violence in and around Jerusalem, the Israel Police decided Tuesday not to allow a flag march in the Old City to proceed as planned. In addition, the political leadership is expected to consider banning Israelis from the Temple Mount for the last two weeks of Ramadan.
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The organizers nevertheless said they would go ahead with the plan to hold the march through the Old City, despite this creating a possible security threat, and tried to breach the roadblocks that had been set by police. Several hours later, in what appears to be a response to the event, Code Red alert was heard in communities in southern Israel, suggesting projectiles were fired from the Gaza Strip. It was later confirmed that a rocket fell in an open area. Damage was later reported near home in Sderot, possibly from a fragment.
Video: Israel Police
Right-wing MK Itamar Ben-Gvir also took part in the flag march, which was ultimately stopped by police before most of the participants could enter the old city through the Nablus Gate.
Ben-Gvir defied Prime Minister Naftaly Bennett, who had exercised his authority to forbid him from taking part, fearing this would be used as a pretext by Palestinian extremists to carry out attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem and beyond, potentially leading to another flare-up with the Palestinians like Operation Guardian of the Wall, which took place against the backdrop of tensions in Jerusalem.
Bennett said he was denying Ben-Gvir, whose past actions in Jerusalem have inflamed tensions before, access to the area of the flag march after consulting with the Israel Police. "I am not going to let petty politics threaten human lives, I will not let the political provocation Ben Gvir is waging to threaten IDF forces and police officers, and to make their task even more complicated than it already is. " Ben Gvir nevertheless vowed to arrive. "Just because you [Bennett] are being extorted by the Abbas [the head of the coalition party Ra'am] doesn't mean you can divide Jerusalem," Ben-Gvir said on Twitter. "I plan to arrive at the Nablus Gate."
A senior defense official told Israel Hayom that if Ben Gvir was to succeed in entering the old city it could be seen as a provocation by the Palestinians and ultimately lead to an escalation that would mimic the one in May 2021, which culminated with heavy rocket fire from Hamas and a major Israeli campaign to stop it.
"We won't allow the flag march to take place as the organizers proposed. A flag march at this time would require deploying another 1,000 police to Jerusalem. We're already stretched to the breaking point, with our main goal to protect the security of the public and the safety of every place," senior officials said.
The report came after Israel Hayom revealed that right-wing activists had contacted the Jerusalem District Police on Monday to request a permit to hold a flag march around the walls of the Old City, particularly at the spot where buses of Jewish worshippers were targeted by rock throwers last week.
"We'll raise our heads and the flag, now is the time we will make Jerusalem the focus of our celebration," the organizers said, adding, "We have no intention of being put off by threats from those who want to scare us. We will march with flags, proudly, and we will do it at this time."
However, the police nixed the proposal, with one police official saying on Tuesday, "We received a last-minute request to hold a flag march. The organizer was summoned for a conversation in an attempt to come up with a workable plan and date that would allow us to maintain order and security.
"Unfortunately, even before the move and prior to receiving any permit, the organizers announced that it would be taking place, and that's wrong. We offered alternatives, but they didn't want to listen. It's a kind of contrariness, like someone insisting on holding a gay pride parade in [ultra-Orthodox city] Bnei Brak," the official said.
The alternatives offered by the police included a different route for the march, but the organizers insisted they wanted to circle the Old City walls, pass through Damascus Gate, and continue to the Western Wall. The police denied that proposed route, which would pass through some of the main flashpoints in the Old City, with potential for clashes.
The police suggested the march enter the Old City via Jaffa Gate and proceed to the Western Wall via the Armenian Quarter, but the organizers refused.
On Tuesday, the people behind the flag march initiative criticized the police's claim that the plan had been rejected because of the short notice.
"We couldn't know there would be terrorist attacks that the Old City would be silent during Passover," they said. Meanwhile, the organizers announced that despite the police ban, they planned to congregate at Safra Square at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
In response to that announcement, the police said they would be prepared and would "not allow that clash to take place."
Meanwhile, as tensions continued on the Temple Mount, head of the outlawed Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement Sheikh Raed Salah visited Al-Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday. Salah, who was convicted and served time in prison for incitement to terrorism last year, strolled through the Temple Mount compound and met with dozens of members of Murabitun group at the mosque, blessing them.
Arab media outlets quoted Salah saying, "Al-Aqsa Mosque is an Islamic, Arab, and Palestinian right that cannot be shared. We emphasize that the Israeli presence at Al-Aqsa is the presence of an occupation. Therefore, it is illegitimate."
"The occupation might use the language of strength, but the world must know that the language of strength cannot turn a lie into the truth," Salah said.
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