About 5,000 Israelis marched June 15 through the Old City of Jerusalem in the annual Flag Parade organized by the nationalist right. The march usually takes place in May, marking the unification of the city after the 1967 Six-Day war. This year, the march was cancelled when Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem. The organizers wanted to hold the march June 10, but the security cabinet postponed it to yesterday and required the organizers to reroute it. Defense Minister Benny Gantz argued that on its usual route, the march would provoke clashes with the Muslim residents of the city and a violent reaction by Hamas just ahead of the inauguration of the new government June 13.

Thus the original route of the march was altered. The marchers were permitted to reach the flashpoint Damascus Gate, where they were allowed to dance, but had to enter the Old City through the Jaffa Gate, with some reaching the Western Wall Plaza through the Muslim quarter of the Old City and some through the Jewish quarter. As the march started, clashes broke out near the Old City between police and Palestinian residents, with 33 people reportedly injured. Police arrested 17 people on suspicion of disturbing public order, throwing stones and assaulting police officers.

Several marchers yelled hate slogans against Arabs, chanting, “Death to Arabs,” “Burn down your village,” “Jerusalem is ours” and “Shuafat is on fire,” referring to the Jerusalem Palestinian neighborhood. Participants also denigrated new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. They called him a “traitor” and held up posters reading “Bennett the liar” for including in the new government the Muslim Ra’am party despite promises not to do so.

Far-right Knesset members, including Religious Zionism’s Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben Gvir and Orit Struck, participated in the march, as did Likud legislators May Golan and Shlomo Karhi. Knesset members from the Joint List rallied outside the Old City to denounce the march. Head of the Joint List Ayman Odeh posted a video showing marchers chanting “Death to Arabs,” calling it a “march of hatred and occupation.”