“We need revenge,” said one protester, Noam Goldstein, 15, a high school student from a small Israeli settlement near the Palestinian city of Hebron in the West Bank. “They committed attacks against us, so we must take revenge. This doesn’t mean we have to kill them all.
But he added: “I want all this land to be ours. »
After the founding of Israel in 1948, Jerusalem was divided in two: Israel controlled the western neighborhoods of the city, while Jordan controlled the predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem. During the 1967 Middle East War, Israel conquered East Jerusalem and then annexed it, a move unrecognized by most countries, which still consider it occupied territory.
Tensions heightened by the annual gathering commemorating the takeover helped spark an 11-day conflict in May 2021 between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas. Hamas fired rockets into Jerusalem as the march was about to start, setting off rocket warning sirens and sending thousands of people rushing for cover.
On Wednesday, Shilo Tzoref, a 19-year-old student at a religious school, or yeshiva, sought to distance himself from some of the more violent chants. “The central idea is that Jerusalem belongs to us,” he said. “You shouldn’t hit every Arab you see on the street. It’s a holy day to celebrate Jerusalem, it’s not about fighting with our enemies.”
Earlier Wednesday, Israeli Jews climbed the Noble Sanctuary, a hotly contested holy site known to Muslims as the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex and to Jews as the Temple Mount. Under a long-standing agreement at the sensitive holy site, non-Muslims are allowed to visit, but only Muslims can pray.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Minister of National Security and far-right political leader, also joined the procession. Mr. Ben-Gvir, who has long advocated Jewish worship at the Noble Sanctuary, said Jews had prayed freely on the Temple Mount in accordance with his orders to the police, going against the status quo.
“We are here to tell them that Jerusalem is ours, the Damascus Gate is ours and the Temple Mount is ours,” Ben-Gvir told reporters during the march.
Ephrat Livni reports contributed.
