The Islamic Jihad has stated that due to Arabs’ “shameful silence, the Zionist entity’s gangs are daring to desecrate the nation’s sacred sites.”
Palestinian Islamic Jihad issued the statement in response to the annual Jerusalem Day march by thousands of Israelis through a Palestinian neighbourhood in Jerusalem, with some stoking wartime tensions and chanting “Death to Arabs.”
The march, which it said is Islamophobic and anti-Arab, has led to the closure of entrances to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and caused Palestinians to stay confined to their homes out of fear for their safety.
“The march is a blatant assault on the Muslims’ first qibla [the point toward which Muslims turn to pray] and on religious holy sites. Zionist gangs are trying to compensate for the humiliation they and their army have been subjected to in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.”
Islamic Jihad
Wednesday, June 5, 2024, marked this year’s Jerusalem Day.
The Israeli holiday of Jerusalem Day marks the conclusion of the 1967 war and the start of the illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israelis claim as the “reunification” of Jerusalem.
Chief among the ceremonies and memorials are being staged across Israel to mark the day, is the controversial Dance of the Flags, or the Flag March.
Every year, the parade attracts thousands of national-religious Jews, many of them young men, who aggressively march with Israeli flags through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and engage in acts of provocation, violence, and destruction of Palestinian property with little police intervention.
Thousands of mostly ultranationalist Israelis participated in the annual Jerusalem Day march through a dense Palestinian neighbourhood in Jerusalem on Wednesday, with some stoking wartime tensions and chanting “Death to Arabs.”
The marchers also chanted anti-Muslim slogans outside of the Damascus Gate, a central gathering place for Palestinians in occupied east Jerusalem.
Sapir Sluzker Amran, an activist and human rights lawyer, noted that the Israeli right-wing has been holding the Flag March for years and “it’s always provocative,” but this year “there’s a direct intention to set fire.”
She told a news agency that National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir and the rest of the right-wing ministers are trying to do all they can to stop the captives deal and the ceasefire recently promoted by U.S President, Joe Biden.
“They’re using this parade and they’re using the route going through Damascus Gate, inside the Old City confronting and using violence against Palestinians to escalate the situation so that we have an excuse to continue the war.”
Sapir Sluzker Amran
Ben-Gvir Says “Jerusalem Is Ours”
Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir declared that this year’s Jerusalem Day celebration sends a message to Hamas that “Jerusalem is ours.”
“The Damascus Gate is ours. The Temple Mount is ours. And God willing complete victory is ours,” he says at the beginning of the annual flag march, flanked by Otzma Yehudit MKs and Social Equality Minister May Golan (Likud).
In a message directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben Gvir said, “Don’t stop. We are winning!”
Marchers shouted, “The eternal people aren’t scared. May your village burn.”
Others chanted, “The people of Israel live on. All Arabs can suck it.”
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