Ultranationalists March in Jerusalem Amid Rising Tensions

Ultranationalist Jews marched through Jerusalem's Old City on Thursday, chanting racist slogans such as 'Death to Arabs' and 'May your villages burn,' according to multiple reports. The annual event, known as Jerusalem Day, commemorates Israel's capture of East Jerusalem during the 1967 Mideast war. Israeli police barricaded parts of the plaza for journalists but allowed the march to proceed.

The young, mostly male group marched under the watch of Israeli police. Normally a bustling marketplace for Palestinian residents, the area was devoid of Palestinians as many had barricaded themselves inside their homes and closed their shops for safety. The procession often leads to violent confrontations between ultranationalists and Palestinian residents.

Scuffles broke out when groups of young marchers entered the Old City before the start of the march, encountering Palestinians in the Christian quarter. They threw chairs at each other until activists from Standing Together, an Israeli-Palestinian coexistence group, intervened to stop the confrontation. Another group opposed to extremist Jewish violence called Tag Meir held an annual 'flower march' before the crowds descended, handing out flowers to shopkeepers before they closed early.

Earlier in the day, Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir staged a provocative visit to Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, the hilltop compound that is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He raised an Israeli flag and sang 'the Temple Mount is in our hands,' referencing a famous statement from 1967. His visit threatened to inflame tensions that are rife in the city after two and a half years of near-constant war and fragile ceasefires.

Far-right legislator Yitzhak Kroizer prostrated himself before the Dome of the Rock Mosque and declared on social media, 'the time has come to get rid of all the mosques and work to construct the Temple.' Israeli authorities barred men under 60 and women under 50 from entering Al-Aqsa that morning, clearing it for settler incursions – more than 2,200 in total during the week.

Meanwhile, Israel's cabinet approved a plan to build a defence compound on the site of the recently demolished premises of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in East Jerusalem. The new compound will include a military museum, recruitment office, and defence minister's office. Defence Minister Israel Katz called the decision one of 'sovereignty, Zionism, and security.' UNRWA had not used the building since last year after Israel ordered it to vacate all its premises.

In the al-Bustan neighborhood below Jerusalem’s old city walls, Palestinians have been forced to demolish their own family homes to make way for an Israeli theme park. The area is part of a larger project focusing on Jerusalem's Jewish past, erasing its Palestinian character. According to Aviv Tatarsky, a senior researcher at Ir Amim, this encapsulates the erasure of Palestinians from both geography and history.

Over 57 homes in al-Bustan have been demolished in the past two years, with more designated for demolition. The planned theme park, called the Kings Garden, is designed to be part of a settler-driven archaeological project centered on what has been called the City of David. Despite international opposition and some ambivalence within Israeli politics, the demolitions have continued, particularly after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks and the ensuing Gaza war.