'Go and be with Shireen': Israeli far-right threaten BBC reporters during 'Flag March'

BBC reporters were 'assaulted' while covering the far-right 'Flag March' in Jerusalem 

The BBC team were spat at, according to one correspondent [source: Getty]

BBC reporters were assaulted during an extremist Israeli 'Flag March' in Jerusalem on Sunday, a journalist for the broadcaster said on social media.

Tom Bateman, a Middle East correspondent for the British broadcasting giant, said the BBC team had their equipment broken during an attack by Israelis participating in the far-right march.

He added that one individual spat at them, and said: "Go and be with Shireen."

Shireen Abu Akleh was a veteran Al Jazeera reporter killed by Israeli forces when they stormed the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

Her death sparked global outrage over the crisis of impunity emboldening Israeli forces to undermine fundamental rights such as a free press.

 
On Sunday, when thousands of Israelis surged through the streets of Jerusalem and chanted "Death to Arabs", several other attacks on journalists were reported.

Israeli marchers were seen assaulting a France 24 reporter on camera.

The journalist, who was standing in front of men wearing Israeli flags, was seen clutching her forehead while reporting after being hit on the head with a bottle.

Iyad Harb, the police correspondent for the Kan public broadcaster’s Arabic station, was taken to hospital after he was assaulted by masked men in Sheikh Jarrah, according to the Times of Israel.

Harb said the men who beat him were speaking Hebrew and police officers did not assist him despite his appeals for help, reported the Hebrew website.

At least 40 Palestinians were injured on Sunday by Israeli forces and settlers using rubber bullets, truncheons and pepper spray, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Videos shared on social media show Israelis harassing and assaulting local Palestinians, including the elderly.

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LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for Shireen Abu Akleh 

Israeli youth at Jerusalem flag march reveal vision of a far-right future

Teens from across Israel flooded Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday to sing racist songs, fly Lehava banners and praise Itmar Ben-Gvir as their choice for prime minister

Demonstrators gesture as they gather with Israeli flags during the 'flag march' outside the Old City's Damascus Gate on 29 May (AFP)

By Lubna Masarwa in Jerusalem
Published date: 30 May 2022

At Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday was a glimpse of Israel’s future.

Tens of thousands of Israelis crammed into the historic walls and gates, the majority adolescents, with a smattering of families.

This gathering, the ultranationalist “flag march” commemorating Israel’s 1967 capture of East Jerusalem, was one of the sparks that last year ignited a war in Gaza, and civil strife between Jews and Palestinians across Israel.

But as Israeli youth sang “Muhammad is dead” and “we are not afraid”, there was no evidence of lessons learnt from last year’s deadly unravelling.

If anything, Israel’s far-right youth felt emboldened - and growing more so. Israeli police estimated 70,000 people participated in the march, which a police spokesperson told Middle East Eye was far larger than previous years.

'If we face any resistance by the Arabs in the Old City we will break them'

- Israeli youth

At the Jaffa Gate, it was clear that an event that once was predominantly attended by Israeli settlers had now become mainstream: teens had been bussed in by their schools from various corners of the country.

Elon and Eran*, both 16, were brought to Jerusalem from the coastal city of Ashkelon by their school.

“We came here today to show that Jerusalem belongs to us and not to others. We are not afraid, we are here to emphasise that Jerusalem belongs to us and will remain to us,” Elon told MEE.

Surrounded by Israeli flags, symbols of the far-right Lehava group and T-shirts emblazoned with aggressive slogans, Elon and Eran acknowledged that they could understand the Palestinian cause - but Jerusalem and the land between the Jordan river and Mediterranean Sea “belong to us”.

“We will keep fighting to keep it in our hands. At the end of the day, we will be here forever,” said Eran.

'We need someone like Ben-Gvir'

Recent weeks have seen a succession of Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, including Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, and attacks inside Israel by Palestinians of various backgrounds.

A shocking Israeli assault on Abu Akleh’s funeral in Jerusalem - seemingly over the presence of Palestinian flags - only worsened anger and resentment ahead of Sunday’s march.

Several youths in the Old City cited the recent Palestinian attacks as reasons for their own drift rightward. Though Israel’s government is headed by a hawkish right-winger - Naftali Bennett - it is weak and unwieldy, and blamed for the worsening security situation.

Yet on Jerusalem’s stone streets, it is not former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is making political gain of Bennet’s woes, but rather Itamar Ben-Gvir, a former follower of Jewish supremacist Meir Kahane, and the face of Israel’s burgeoning and openly racist far-right.

“The state is in a bad situation, with the economy and the latest attacks on Israelis. We need someone like Ben-Gvir,” said Eran.

'Even though some describe him as extremist, Ben-Gvir is very charming and cute'

- Moira, 17

“Ben-Gvir says loudly what he believes in, he doesn't fear anyone or what they think about him, and this is the only thing that can create change.”

Shira, a 16-year-old from southern Israel’s Beer Sheba, and Moria, a 17-year-old from Yavne near Tel Aviv, cry out in unison when asked who their next prime minister should be: “Ben-Gvir.”

They describe him as strong, honest and fearless. He is seen as the only man who can impose Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem’s Palestinians.

Ben-Gvir, who marched in Jerusalem on Sunday surrounded by adoring supporters, entered Israel’s parliament in 2020 at the initiative of Netanyahu in an unsuccessful attempt to keep him in power. Now opinion polls show Ben-Gvir’s party gaining more seats than Bennett’s in any future election, which seems more likely to be called with every new political crisis that emerges.

There’s a good chance you’ll find Ben-Gvir at any flashpoint event, goading Palestinians with racist language and openly carrying firearms. But for Shira and Moira, that kind of behaviour is just part of his charm.

“Even though some describe him as extremist, he is very charming and cute,” said Moira.

'God is watching over us'

There are 300,000 Palestinians currently living in Jerusalem, but if many of the Israeli youth that attended the flag march had their way, those Jerusalemites would be expelled from their homes.

Moira believes the solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict lies in the removal of Palestinians.

“We should help the Palestinians to immigrate from here, they have 30 other countries, and we only have one,” she said. “Maybe we can allow those who accept our sovereignty to stay.”

Shira disagrees: “We have to expel all of them.”

Israeli far-right MP Itamar Ben-Gvir is escorted by bodyguards, as he visits Damascus Gate to Jerusalem's Old City as part of the Jerusalem Day events 29 May (Reuters)

This kind of open hostility to Palestinian Jerusalemites and citizens of Israel has always been a part of Israeli public life - but it has not manifested in aggressive marches under heavy police protection until recently.

Riyad al-Hallaq owns a coffee shop on al-Wad Street, the main route from the Damascus Gate to al-Aqsa Mosque through the Old City.

“In previous years the march was much smaller and it passed by our shops peacefully without our shops getting attacked,” he told MEE.

On Sunday, Palestinian businesses and homes were trashed, spat on and graffitied, and Palestinians assaulted by Israeli marchers.

“This is a very significant event for us, especially this year,” said Moira.

“It was important for us to come and to show the Arabs that we are not afraid and that Jerusalem belongs to us.”

Outside the Jaffa Gate, a group of teenage girls sang and danced, draped with Israeli flags. They’d come all the way from a string of towns along Israel’s boundary with the Gaza Strip.

“You should understand that we are strong and God is watching over us,” one said. “If we face any resistance by the Arabs in the Old City we will break them.”

*Some names have been changed

Palestine PM says Israeli flag march ‘crossed all red lines’

Mohammed Shtayyeh describes attacks by far-rights Israelis against Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem as ‘aggression’.

Tens of thousands of flag-waving ultranationalist Israelis raided the Muslim quarter of the Old City on Sunday during the so-called 'flag march' 

[Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu]

Published On 30 May 2022

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh has described attacks by far-right Israelis in occupied East Jerusalem as “aggression which crossed all red lines”.

Tens of thousands of flag-waving, ultranationalist Israelis raided the Muslim quarter of the Old City on Sunday during the so-called “flag march”. The provocative march that took place in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is meant to celebrate the occupation and subsequent annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967 – a move that has not been recognised by the international community.

Some chanted racist slogans including “Death to Arabs” and attacked Palestinian residents while backed by armed Israeli forces.

Some Jewish groups also stormed the Al-Aqsa compound raising fears among Palestinians that it was an attempt to change the status quo at Islam’s third holiest site. Jewish prayers are prohibited at the 35-acre (14-hectare) compound known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary. Jews call it the Temple Mount.

“Israel yesterday has crossed all red lines and international treaties with its repeated aggression against Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem. It attempts to impose a reality that doesn’t align with the historical status quo of Al-Aqsa mosque,” Shtayyeh said on Monday.

Dozens of Palestinians were arrested across occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank a day earlier, where protests to decry the march erupted, while more than 165 suffered injuries ranging from heavy tear gas inhalation to beatings and wounds from live rounds, as well as rubber-coated steel bullets.



Following the march, large groups of Israelis stormed through Palestinian neighbourhoods, assaulting residents as well as their property.

Nida Ibrahim, reporting from the West Bank city of Ramallah, said the Shattyeh has been issuing statements “since yesterday”.

“He had strong statements today saying that Israel needed more than 3,000 Israeli army and police officers to secure the city,” Ibrahim said.

“He said there’s a difference between occupying the city militarily and being the occupying power – and actually having sovereignty [over it].”

Settler attacks

Some 70,000 Israelis were reported to have joined the annual march, which is seen as a bid by Israel to impose control over the occupied part of the city.

According to Ibrahim, Palestinians “on the street” said that these statements are not enough and expect more from their leadership.

“The Palestinian Authority has been saying it’s committed to a peaceful resolution … on the streets, Palestinians have been saying Israel cementing its occupation,” she said.

Israel has been advancing its illegal settlement project on occupied Palestinian lands. Settlements are fortified, Jewish-only housing complexes built on Palestinian land in violation of international law. At least 600,000 settlers live in settlements across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank city of Hebron, Israeli settlers resumed their march on Monday.

“We know settlers in Hebron in the south of the occupied West Bank have marched through the old part of the city,” Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim said.

Settlers “continued marching with their flags, with their racist slogans” towards the Ibrahimi mosque, she said, adding that settlers “invaded the squares of the mosque” while under the protection of the Israeli army.

According to her, Palestinian journalists who were attempting to document what was happening were prevented from doing so.



Wafa news agency reported that settlers also marched with Israeli flags at a military checkpoint near Nablus and Jenin in the northern West Bank while a secondary school in the Palestinian village of Urif also came under attack, it said.

The Palestinian news agency quoted the principal as saying that the settlers arrived with the army’s protection. They threw rocks at the school which resulted in some damage, while soldiers fired tear gas canisters causing “many suffocation cases”, it added.

Settler attacks on Palestinians and their property have been rife across the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The situation in Hebron’s old city is particularly volatile, as some 700 Israeli settlers live among a Palestinian population of nearly 40,000.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

  

Israelis lament 'racism problem' as Jerusalem march turns ugly


By Hadas Gold and Abeer Salman, CNN

Israelis dance and hold Israeli flags as they take part at the annual Flag March by Damascus Gate on May 29 in Jerusalem.


Jerusalem (CNN)A march on Sunday to commemorate the establishment of Israeli control over East Jerusalem in 1967 was marred by incidents of violence and hate that left some Israelis disturbed.

Israeli police estimated that more than 70,000 people took to the streets of the flashpoint city for a Jerusalem Day flag march, which has become a magnet for far-right Jewish extremists. CNN journalists on the ground witnessed some of those marching hurled insults, punches and objects at Palestinians, journalists and police.

At one point, groups were chanting "death to Arabs," and "Arabs are sons of b*tches." One marcher was filmed chanting "Shireen is dead, Palestine is dead," in reference to Shireen Abu Akleh, the Al Jazeera reporter who was killed while covering an Israeli military raid in the West Bank earlier this month.

It was a chaotic Sunday in the narrow streets of the Old City as clashes broke out between the marchers and Palestinians as well as Israeli police and Palestinians. CNN's team on the ground witnessed several violent encounters where marchers attacked Palestinians and journalists -- including CNN staff -- with pepper spray, as well as sticks and bottles thrown at reporters gathered to cover the march. Police were seen tackling an older Palestinian man who had placed himself between reporters and the marchers to wave a Palestinian flag.

Several Israeli politicians condemned the actions of the participants, while commentators noted that the march has become overrun by right-wing extremists and Jewish settlers -- and is largely avoided by secular Israelis and ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett condemned in a statement what he said was "a minority that has come to set the area ablaze," while Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said the extremist groups La Familia and Lehava, whose flags were raised during the procession, "do not deserve to carry the Israeli flag."
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Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev defended approving the route of the march through the Muslim quarter of the Old City, writing on Twitter: "If we succumb to the threats of terrorism not to wave Israeli flags in our capital, we will not know one day of silence, and we will find ourselves folding in the future as well." But he also condemned what he said was "ugly racist behavior that cannot be tolerated."

'They were shooting directly at the journalists': New evidence suggests Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in targeted attack by Israeli forces

Israel considers both eastern and western sectors of Jerusalem as its "undivided capital." Most of the international community considers the eastern sector as being occupied. East Jerusalem has a sizable population of Palestinians, who want that part of the city to be the capital of a future state.

Issawi Frej, Minister of Regional Cooperation and the second ever Muslim minister in an Israeli government, said on Facebook that he boycotted government meetings on Sunday "in light of what is happening in Jerusalem and in the entirety of the decision-making process regarding today, where I tried to change the course of the Flag March and work to calm the situation in vain."

Michal Rozin, a member of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, tweeted a video of a young Jewish man waving an Israeli flag like a weapon toward a group of young Palestinians.

"If anyone has not yet understood why the flag parade has become a show of bullying and violence, this video from Nablus Gate might be able to sharpen it," she wrote, referring to one of the gates of the Old City. "My flag is not a weapon."

Yaakov Katz, editor-in-chief of the English newspaper Jerusalem Post, wrote in a column that "there is a sad conclusion we cannot ignore: Israel has a racism problem, and it rears its ugly head on Jerusalem Day."

Yedioth Ahronoth Columnist Nahum Barnea wrote that the day has been taken over by settlers and religious Zionists who turn it into a day that is "Not love for Jerusalem; but hatred for Arabs."

Jerusalem Flag March splits Israeli coalition parties

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett embraced right-wing calls to hold the traditional Jerusalem Flag March on its usual route.

Demonstrators gather with Israeli flags at the Western Wall in the old city of Jerusalem on May 29, 2022, during the Israeli flag march to mark Jerusalem Day. - GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images

Mazal Mualem
@mazalm3

May 30, 2022


Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has gotten used to being the target of vicious political attacks over the last year, especially when the attacks come from right-wing and ultra-Orthodox Knesset members. Surprisingly, those same legislators praised him yesterday for refusing to cancel the annual “Jerusalem Day flag parade” despite threats from Hamas and Hezbollah to set the city on fire if the parade took place.

Ever since Jerusalem was reunited 55 years ago in the 1967 Six-Day War, the historic event has been celebrated with thousands of participants marching through the city with flags. Their final destination is the Western Wall, for an evening of singing and dancing and, of course, the raising of Israeli flags. Most of the participants align with the Israeli right, particularly with the religious nationalist sector.

For decades, this annual parade to mark the reunification of the city took place with only minor incidents. That all changed last year. Hamas was able to establish a link between Jerusalem and Gaza. It threatened to fire missiles at Jerusalem if the parade took place, and it carried through with that threat. It was the opening salvo of Operation Guardian of the Walls in Gaza and a series of riots in Israel’s mixed, Arab-Jewish cities.

It happened during the final days of Benjamin Netanyahu’s long tenure as prime minister. On this particular occasion, he took the advice of the security forces and gave orders to stop the parade. This year, as Jerusalem Day approached, the government debated whether the parade should be allowed to take place. The situation in Jerusalem was already tense, and there had been a wave of terrorist attacks over the past few months (although it seems to have died down).

Another consideration was the particular makeup of the current coalition, which includes an Arab party and members of Knesset from the left. They expressed their opposition to the parade, saying that it would end up being an act of provocation.

Seniors in the defense establishment and members of the political right took the position that the parade should take place. They argued that succumbing to pressure from Hamas could damage Israel’s ability to act as a deterrent. Prime Minister Bennett and Minister of Public Security Omer Bar Lev adopted this position while preparing an appropriate response if the parade led to violence in the region.

Enormous police forces were deployed to Jerusalem over the last week to secure the flag parade. Tension has been high in Jerusalem since Ramadan, especially on the Temple Mount. The mood is volatile, and the overwhelming fear is that even an isolated incident could lead to an escalation of violence.

It was a test for the current government too. The right has accused it incessantly of being weak in terms of defense because it formed a coalition with a non-Zionist party. They claim that Muslim Raam prevents the government from efficiently fighting against terrorism.

Most of all, however, it was a test for Bennett, who went from being the darling of the right to persona non grata in that camp. Had he canceled the parade, it would have proved what people say about him: He is weak, and he succumbs to every threat. The fact is that he didn’t even blink. Marchers filled the streets of Jerusalem yesterday afternoon, and the parade took place as planned.

It is now estimated that some 50,000 people came to Jerusalem to celebrate. One of them was opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who arrived at the Western Wall in the morning and made a show of waving the Israeli flag. Before going to the Western Wall, he participated in the launch of the Knesset’s Jerusalem Lobby, during which he attacked the government: “The current government includes members who don’t think we should raise the Israeli flag here in the heart of Jerusalem. A minister in this government said that the parade of Israeli flags in Jerusalem was an act of provocation.” Netanyahu was referring to Minister of the Environment Tamar Zandberg of Meretz, who said in an interview that, “The fact is, the flag parade puts the lives of Israelis and Palestinians at risk. We are all its victims.”

All in all, Jerusalem Day and the flag parade were relatively quiet events, though there were clashes between the police and Muslim worshippers on the Temple Mount and between right-wing demonstrators and Arab residents of East Jerusalem.

There were a few incidents apparently intended to provoke the people who came to celebrate. These included a glider that flew above the crowds with a Palestinian flag. The glider was eventually shot down by the police, given concerns that it posed a threat to participants in the parade.

On the other side of the divide, right-wing activists attacked East Jerusalem Arabs and chanted “Death to the Arabs!”

While tens of thousands of people celebrated the day at the Western Wall, there were clashes in neighborhoods that were not on the parade’s route. Two Jewish buses were caught by accident in the Issawiya neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Both buses were pelted with rocks, and one was set on fire.

Given these events, Bennett ordered the security forces to show zero tolerance to provocations and acts of violence by extremists.

By evening, the government could sigh in relief. Hamas did not fire rockets at Israel, and the police were able to restore control during the various clashes and disturbances. When it was over, Bennett said that “Jerusalem was filled today with people who came to celebrate. We decided that the parade of flags would follow its traditional route, and that is what happened. We broke records this year, with 50,000 people filling our city with the colors off our flag. It was a very happy and moving event to see the entire Jewish people celebrate together.”

It seems now as if Jerusalem passed in relative quiet, even if tensions in the capital are still high. The war of flags in East Jerusalem, between Palestinians waving their flags and Jews waving theirs, is expected to continue. These incidents pose a challenge to the coalition, which is divided between Raam and Meretz, who see no problem with Palestinians raising their flag and right-wing parties who demand that flying the Palestinian flag be banned by law.

These differences were apparent in the May 29 meeting of the Ministerial Committee on legislation, which granted coalition members the right to vote their conscience on a law proposed by Knesset member Eli Cohen of Likud, which would ban raising flags of enemy states, including the Palestinian Authority, in institutions funded by the state, including universities.

Cohen’s proposal, which was discussed on Jerusalem Day, was intended to embarrass the coalition. Two ministers voted against it: Minister of the Environment Tamar Zandberg of Meretz and Minister Nahman Shai of the Labor Party. The decision to allow them to vote their conscience on this was exceptional.

It seems as if this year the flag parade was not only a source of conflict between Jews and Arabs, but it turned into a political battlefield between the right-wing parties in the opposition and the ruling coalition.

 Israeli PM defends march marked by violence, racism

By JOSEPH KRAUSS

1 of 4

Palestinians and Jewish youths clash in Jerusalem's Old City as Israelis mark Jerusalem Day, an Israeli holiday celebrating the capture of the Old City during the 1967 Mideast war. Sunday, May 29, 2022. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital. But Palestinians, who seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, see the march as a provocation. Last year, the parade helped trigger an 11-day war between Israel and Gaza militants. 

(AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)


JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday defended the decision to hold an annual march that celebrates Israel’s takeover of east Jerusalem and was marked by violence and anti-Palestinian racism.

Authorities called up thousands of police, forcibly cleared out Palestinians and risked another war with the Islamic militant group Hamas to ensure that tens of thousands of mostly right-wing Israelis could parade through a dense Palestinian neighborhood and hundreds could visit an intensely contested holy site.

Israel had changed the route at the last minute in 2021, at a time of soaring tensions over violence at the holy site and attempts by settlers to remove dozens of Palestinian families from their homes in east Jerusalem. Hamas still fired rockets, and an 11-day Gaza war ensued.

Israel avoided that scenario this year and allowed the parade to take its traditional route through the heart of the Muslim Quarter of the Old City.

But the march saw Israeli nationalists chant racist slogans, including “Death to Arabs,” and attack Palestinians and journalists. Fights broke out along the route, as police mainly intervened to protect Jews and disperse Palestinians.

The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said 62 Palestinians were wounded, including 23 who needed hospitalization. Israeli police said they arrested over 60 suspects and that five officers were wounded. The vast majority of those arrested appear to have been Palestinians, though police refused to provide a breakdown.

Bennett praised the police’s handling of the event and said Israel was obliged to hold the march in the face of threats by Hamas.

“If we hadn’t done it along the regular route, we would – in effect – never go back to it,” he said. “This could have been a retreat on sovereignty.”

Bennett praised the marchers, saying that “except for an extremist group, whom we will deal with to the fullest extent of the law, those who celebrated yesterday did so in a very special, heart-lifting way.”

Israel captured east Jerusalem, including the Old City with its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 war, and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state.

Also on Sunday, Israel allowed hundreds of mostly nationalist and religious Jews to visit the holy site that Jews refer to as the Temple Mount and Muslims know as the Al-Aqsa mosque compound. The site, which is the holiest for Jews and the third holiest in Islam, has frequently been the epicenter of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

The Palestinians fear Israel plans to take over the site or partition it. Israel says it is committed to a decades-old set of arrangements known as the status quo, under which Jews can visit the site but not pray there — but that rule has steadily eroded in recent years. Some of Sunday’s visitors were seen praying with little interference from police.

“Despite great efforts by far-right activists, Sunday’s Flag March in the Old City of Jerusalem didn’t lead to a major conflagration between Israel and the Palestinians,” Amos Harel wrote in a column in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper. “Instead, we witnessed the usual collection of racist displays, violent scuffles between Jews and Arabs and a general sense of revulsion.”

Tensions flare in Jerusalem over flag march despite caution in Gaza
The flag march in Jerusalem sparked confrontations and clashes that quickly expanded to several sites in the West Bank, in a scene reminiscent of the beginnings of the second Palestinian intifada in 2000.

A protester holds a tissue to his nose while holding a Palestinian flag near a tire fire during clashes with Israeli forces following a demonstration to denounce the annual nationalist flag march through Jerusalem, at the Israeli-controlled Hawara checkpoint near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, on May 29, 2022. - JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images

Ahmad Melhem
May 30, 2022

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Clashes erupted in Jerusalem on May 29, as nearly 70,000 far-right Israelis took part in the controversial flag march through East Jerusalem under the protection of more than 3,000 Israeli police. Palestinian factions had warned against the demonstration last week, with Hamas threatening to respond with "all means."

In the early morning hours of Sunday, the Israeli police entered Al-Aqsa Mosque, surrounding dozens of worshippers and reportedly locking several inside as they closed the mosque’s doors with iron chains in preparation for the settlers’ march that began at 7 a.m.

The flag march, which peaked as demonstrators arrived at Bab al-Amud Square and the Islamic neighborhood in the Old City, was preceded by far-right Israelis storming into Al-Aqsa, led by Knesset member Itmar Ben-Gvir.

Some 1,800 Israelis managed to break into the mosque twice during the day.

For the first time since the occupation of Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1967, these marchers raised the Israeli flag in its courtyard, performing provocative collective dances, Talmudic prayers, or what they call “epic prostration.” They were met with chants and calls of "Allahu Akbar" by the Murabitun (Palestinian volunteers who protect the mosque and continuously resist the incursions).

The Israeli police cracked down on Palestinians to secure the march, launching a spate of arrests at the outer gates of Al-Aqsa, notably the Chain Gate. They also attacked the Murabitun, the paramedics, and put up military checkpoints inside the Old City and along the roads leading to Al-Aqsa.

Speaking about the flag march participants, Ikrima Sabri, Al-Aqsa’s preacher, told Al-Monitor, “What they did on May 29 has not happened since the mosque’s occupation back in 1967.”

“They prostrated in Al-Aqsa courtyards. They chanted, danced and raised the Israeli flag, cursing the prophet and Arabs, all this under the protection of the Israeli police, which indicates the Israeli government’s desire to escalate matters and its compliance with the settlers’ trends and approach,” he said.

Sabri added that “despite what happened, Israel failed to impose its sovereignty over Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem. Despite the deployment of thousands of policemen and the state of alert in the city, it failed to frighten the Jerusalemites who defended their mosque and city and managed to raise the Palestinian flag everywhere.”

The Israeli police cracked down on Jerusalemites under political cover amid instructions from Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to deal firmly and forcefully with anyone opposing the march.

The police had evacuated the Bab al-Amud area and closed shops in the Old City.

Despite all the security measures, the Palestinians defied the police, stood up to the participants in the flag march and managed to raise the Palestinian flag near Bab al-Amud, which prompted the Israeli police to attack and arrest them.

Palestinians also managed to fly a drone carrying a Palestinian flag over the march.

They also launched a countermarch that started off on Salah al-Din Street in the center of East Jerusalem, which was met with Israeli rubber bullets, tear gas and sound bombs. Dozens of participants were arrested and other were beaten with batons.

Israeli marchers attacked shops and clashes broke out in different locations in Jerusalem.

Tensions have been running high in the city and escalated during the holy month of Ramadan in April, with the far-right Israelis and the police’s storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque and cracking down on worshippers.

The situation flared up with the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and the attacks on mourners during the funeral procession in which hundreds of Palestinians participated.

Violent clashes also erupted with the funeral of Walid al-Sharif.

According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (IFRC), 62 people were injured in the vicinity and inside the Old City, with 28 people transferred to the hospital for treatment and the rest treated in the field. The IFRC said that one of the injuries was the result of live ammunition.

At least 50 civilians were arrested, including women and children, in Jerusalem and areas near Bab al-Amud, neighborhoods of the Old City and in Al-Aqsa Mosques, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces reported that 13 settlers were wounded, including two policemen, as the result of the confrontations.

At the end of the flag march, participants launched several attacks on neighborhoods in the city, storming into Palestinian homes in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in the center of occupied East Jerusalem, throwing stones at houses and smashing parked cars.

Similar clashes also broke out in the neighborhoods of Silwan, al-Tur and al-Isawiya.

At the same time, other cities and towns of the West Bank witnessed confrontation and fighting, during which 163 Palestinians were injured, 20 with live bullets and the rest by tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets.

According to local media, clashes broke out in 190 locations between Israeli forces and Palestinians in 24 hours through different sites in the West Banks, with 12 shooting attacks and 35 explosive devices targeting Israeli military sites, checkpoints, vehicles and buses.

Demonstrations and marches swept through 33 areas, while clashes erupted during which Palestinians threw stones at Israeli occupation forces in 94 sites in the West Bank.

Although the clashes in Jerusalem extended to the West Bank, Gaza remained unexpectedly calm without any response from the Palestinian factions.

The situation that might change in light of Hamas politburo head Ismail Haniyeh, who was quoted May 30 by his adviser Taher al-Nunu as saying that what is happening in Jerusalem will “not be forgiven.”

He added that Haniyeh “refused to give any pledges or guarantees to any party of what could be done inside occupied Palestine.”

Meanwhile, some of the military factions in Gaza said that the battle with Israel is open and the “resistance shall decide how to respond to the occupation forces."

Hundreds injured as Palestinians demonstrate against ‘flag march’

An estimated 70,000 Israeli settlers participated in the annual flag march in occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday, with some crowds chanting “Death to Arabs.”

BY YUMNA PATEL

MONDOWEISS

MAY 29, 2022

ISRAELI SETTLER ATTACKS PALESTINIAN WOMAN IN JERUSALEM’S OLD CITY DURING THE ‘JERUSALEM DAY’ FLAG MARCH, MAY 29, 2022. THE FLAG MARCH IS AN ANNUAL DISPLAY OF RIGHT-WING ISRAELI NATIONALISM AND ANTI-PALESTINIAN RACISM INTENDED TO CELEBRATE ZIONIST FORCES’ SEIZURE OF EAST JERUSALEM IN 1967. (PHOTO: OHAD ZWEIGENBERG/SOCIAL MEDIA)

Israel’s flag march, an annual display of right-wing Israeli nationalism and anti-Palestinian racism, took place on Sunday afternoon, stoking tensions in Jerusalem and across the occupied Palestinian territory.

Israeli media reported that Sunday’s flag march was the largest in years, with an estimated 70,000 Israelis participating in the parade.

Palestinian leaders condemn march, warn of retaliation from Gaza

10:55pm (7:55PM GMT)

Leading up to the march, Palestinian factions in Gaza denounced the parade, threatening retaliation against Israel.

“The flag march plan is an explosive barrel and will blow the region up,” the factions said in a joint statement in a press conference held in Gaza City on Thursday.

The factions called on Palestinians to defend Jerusalem, and encouraged people to establish their presence in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and across the city.

The groups said that Israel would bear the responsibility of any aggressions made against Palestinians, adding “We will use every possible means to defend our people, secret places, and our Aqsa Mosque.

Last year, the military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza fired rockets into Israel following the flag march in Jerusalem. The rocket fire came after the factions gave Israel an ultimatum, to stop the march, and retreat its forces who were attacking the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and suppressing peaceful protests in Sheikh Jarrah at the time.

Israel then launched an 11-day offensive on the Gaza Strip that lead to more than 200 Palestinians being killed, including over 60 children.

In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority condemned the flag march and the attacks on Palestinians in the city, with Prime Minister Mohamemd Shtayyeh calling for sanctions to be placed on Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesperson Nabil Abu Rdeineh said in a statement: “It is not possible to achieve security and stability in our region, as long as Israel continues its war on our people, their land and their holy sites, and as long as it deals as a state above the law and rejects the resolutions of international legitimacy and the foundations of the peace process.”

Jordan also condemned the march and the storming of Israeli settlers on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound earlier in the day.

Tareq Hajjaj contributed to this report from Gaza.

Settlers attack Palestinian homes in Sheikh Jarrah, Nablus

10:28pm (7:28pm GMT)

Israeli settlers reportedly attacked Palestinian homes in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah under police protection, according to Palestinian media.

Wafa News Agency reported that settlers raided the al-Samoud area of the neighborhood along with police forces, throwing stones at Palestinians homes and vandalizing vehicles. Wafa reported that live ammunition was fired in the neighborhood.

In the Nablus district of the northern occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers attacked the village of Burin, which borders the extremist Yitzhar settlement, and is the frequent site of settler attacks.

According to Wafa, the settlers attacked the homes of Palestinian residents with Molotv cocktails, sparking confrontations in the village.

The settler attacks came hours after an estimated 50,000 right-wing Israeli settlers paraded through Jerusalem for the annual ‘flag march’, harassing and assaulting Palestinians, and shouting racist chants along the way. 

ISRAELI TROOPS ATTACK A DEMONSTRATION AGAINST THE ANNUAL NATIONALIST “FLAG MARCH” THROUGH JERUSALEM, AT THE ISRAELI-CONTROLLED HAWARA CHECKPOINT NEAR NABLUS IN THE WEST BANK ON MAY 29, 2022. (PHOTO: SHADI JARAR’AH/APA IMAGES)

Hundreds of Palestinians injured in Jerusalem, West Bank

10:18pm (7:18pm GMT)

Hundreds of Palestinians have been injured across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem as Israeli forces suppress protests that erupted in response to the far-right Israeli flag march in Jerusalem today.

Palestinians in East Jerusalem came under attack from both Israeli settlers and police forces, with at least 62 injuries, including 23 hospitalizations, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent (PCRS).

PCRS reported that injuries included rubber-coated steel bullet wounds, beatings and pepper spray.

Israeli settlers were documented as pepper spraying and assaulting Palestinian bystanders during the march, according to local Palestinian media. In at least one instance, a young settler was filmed pepper spraying and attempting to kick a Palestinian woman in the Old City.

Protests were reported in districts across the West Bank, including Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus, and Qalqilya, as Palestinians took to the streets to protest the flag march.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of Palestinians marched through the streets of Ramallah in a counter protest, raising Palestinian flags as they walked through the city.

PCRS reported over 163 injuries in the West Bank, consisting of live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets, and tear gas. Local Palestinian media reported dozens of live ammunition injuries across the West Bank.

The flag march on Sunday came amidst lots of anger and frustration in the occupied territory, following the killing of three Palestinian children last week, and the killing of Palestinian veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Crowds chant ‘Death to Arabs’

8:53pm (5:53 pm GMT)

Thousands of far-right Israeli settlers participated in the annual flag march in occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday, with some crowds chanting “Death to Arabs.”

According to Al Jazeera, thousands of Israeli settlers marched through the Old City carrying Israeli flags and singing religious songs, chanting nationalistic slogans, and hurling racial-epithets at Palestinians.

Some of the chants were “the Jewish nation lives,” “Death to Arabs,” and “Let your village burn down” – all popular chants commonly featured at the annual parade.

The march set off at 4pm local time (1:00pm GMT) and is scheduled to end at 10pm (7:00pm GMT), though the effects of the march are expected to to be felt across Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem and cities across the West Bank into the night, as Israeli forces continue to crack down on protesters.

Israel’s flag march, an annual display of right-wing Israeli nationalism and anti-Palestinian racism, is set to take place on Sunday afternoon, and is already stoking tensions in Jerusalem and across the occupied Palestinian territory. 

ISRAELI SETTLERS CONGREGATE NEAR JERUSALEM’S DAMASCUS GATE DURING THE ‘FLAG MARCH’ IN JERUSALEM ON MAY 29, 2022. (PHOTO: JERIES BSSIER/APA IMAGES)

Settlers storm Al-Aqsa Mosque under police protection

3:48pm (12:48pm GMT)

On Sunday morning ahead of the march, hundreds of far-right settlers, including Israeli MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound under heavy Israeli police protection. According to Israeli media, close to 2,000 settlers entered the compound in smaller groups.

Local media reported that some of the settlers danced, waved Israeli flags, and performed prayer rituals at the site, angering Palestinian worshipers, as Jewish worship at the site is no permitted according to a decades-long agreement between Israel and Jordan, the official custodian of the mosque.

The Times of Israel reported that Israeli police did not intervene as the settlers performed different rituals at the site, despite the blatant violation of the status quo.

According to reports, a number of Palestinian worshipers were barricaded inside the al-Qibli prayer hall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque – the site of intense attacks by Israeli forces earleir this year during the holy month of Ramadan.

Some Palestinians threw stones at police, while Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets at worshipers. Haaretz reported that at least 18 Palestinians were detained from the compound “for disorderly conduct, rioting and assault on police officers or civilians.”

Israeli police also reportedly prevented a number of Palestinian journalists from entering the compound.

Several reports were made throughout the morning of Israeli settlers harassing Palestinians throughout the Old City, while Israeli police were filmed violently detaining Palestinians in the area.


Translation: The occupation forces abused a young Jerusalemite at the moment of his arrest from Al-Wad Street in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem.

Translation: The occupation forces assaulted two girls in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem.

Times of Israel reported settler youth singing “I will take one revenge for both my eyes against Palestine — damn them,” as they walked through the city. One settler youth reportedly told his friends, “The next time you see Arabs running, stick out your legs and trip them.”

Palestinian Authority-owned Wafa News Agency reported that groups of settlers “shouted profanities at Palestinians and verbally assaulted some of them under police protection,” as they made their way through the Old City.

Settlers reportedly assaulted and beat up three Palestinians, causing them minor injuries, including one hospitalization, Wafa reported.

Outside the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City, Israeli police closed off the area and arrested three Palestinians. Israel began cracking down on Palestinians at Damascus Gate on Saturday evening, as smaller groups of settlers marched in the area with Israeli flags.

One video showed Israeli police detaining a Palestinian woman and subsequently beating her inside the permanent police checkpoint outside the gate.

According to the media, around 3,000 Israeli police have been deployed across Jerusalem in anticipation of the march Sunday afternoon.

What is the ‘Flag March’?

The march takes place every year on Israel’s “Jerusalem Day”, and marks the state’s capture of occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 war, and the subsequent annexation of the territory – a move not recognized by the international community.

The parade, which makes its way through East Jerusalem, the Muslim quarter of the Old City and ends at the Western Wall, has become symbolic of Israeli nationalism and attempts to assert Israeli dominance and sovereignty over the city and its Palestinian residents.

Every year the provocative march features thousands of settler youth who wave Israeli flags as they march through the city, often harassing Palestinians and chanting racial epithets along the way.

Among the most popular chants featured at the annual march, are “Death to Arabs,” “may your village burn,” and “a second Nakba is coming,” referring to the Nakba, or ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic, when thousands of Palestinians were massacred by Zionist militias and over 750,000 were forcibly expelled from their homes in 1948.

While the settlers are escorted through the city under heavy Israeli police protection, Palestinians in the Old City are usually forced to shutter the doors to their businesses, and their movement is severely restricted.

Last year, the flag march sparked the devastating 11-day Israeli offensive in Gaza that killed hundreds of Palestinians, after Palestinian factions in Gaza followed through on threats to fire rockets into Israel if the march took place.

UN experts urge action to address alarming increase of child labour in agriculture sector


GENEVA (30 May 2022) – A group of UN human rights experts* have welcomed the adoption of the Durban Call to Action on the Elimination of Child Labor on 20 May 2022 by representatives of governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations, UN agencies, civil society and regional organizations attending the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour in South Africa. They issue the following joint statement:

“The Call emphasizes the need for urgent action because the COVID-19 pandemic, armed conflicts, along with food, humanitarian and climate change threaten to reverse years of progress against child labour. We echo the call for urgent measures to address this tragedy and remain deeply concerned that millions more children will be soon pushed into work, which can seriously jeopardize their physical and mental health. Child labour also produces a structural impact on the enjoyment of other human rights, including rights to adequate housing, education, right to the highest attainable standard of health, right to a healthy environment and often has its root causes in structural, racial and other forms of discrimination.

In 2020, the number of children in child labour around the world rose to 160 million, the first increase recorded in 20 years; today around 79 million children are engaged in hazardous work. Seventy percent of child labour is concentrated in the agriculture sector with an estimated 108 million children working on farms and plantations around the world, which can cause short-term and chronic adverse health effects. The same agricultural system that diminishes biodiversity and increases pollution harms children. Tens of millions of children are engaged in hazardous work, where they are often exposed to toxic chemicals, including highly hazardous pesticides. To this day, children working in agriculture continue to be exposed to hazardous pesticides that are banned in the country of export, resulting in abhorrent double standards and discrimination.

It is often the case that after exposure to toxic pesticides, the violation of a child’s right to physical integrity from toxics cannot be undone. In this sense, agricultural workers are often neglected, and there is an urgent need for States and business to address the dramatic increase of child labour in the agricultural sector worldwide.

The Durban Call to Action includes 49 immediate and effective measures governments should take to end child labour with an emphasis on agriculture. Most crucially, this includes adopting an action plan to eliminate obstacles to the establishment, growth and pursuit of lawful activities of rural worker organisations to give agricultural workers a role in economic and social development.

The Call to Action further includes a commitment to reduce poverty and improve labour conditions of all people working in rural communities including peasants, fishers, forest dwellers, and pastoralists. It recommends ending their functional dependence on child labour, by securing adequate incomes through cooperatives, and representative organizations in line with relevant ILO instruments, reassessing piece-rate wage systems in agriculture; and recognizing the need to guarantee adequate minimum wages for agricultural workers, sufficient to meet their needs. Strengthening social protection is also key in eliminating child labour. It protects households from extreme poverty which could, otherwise, lead to taking children out of school and putting them to work.

While there may be a place for children exceptionally and occasionally helping on family-run farms, childrens’ place is in school. The Call to Action commits States to realize the right to education, by ensuring universal access to free, compulsory, quality, equitable and inclusive education and training. When prohibiting child labour, Governments must also ensure that the necessary conditions for learning are met, including adequate nutrition, water and sanitation, healthcare, books and uniforms provided free of charge. Poverty cannot be a reason that children are not in schools.

Governments must act rapidly, effectively, and continuously to improve working conditions on farms and plantations to provide decent employment and eliminate child labour. Business enterprises must have due diligence processes in place to ensure that there is no child labour across the supply chains and, where it is found, to hold all their subsidiaries, contractors, and sub-contractors accountable in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Governments must ensure that all actors involved in the use of child labour are held accountable.

Governments must promptly implement the instruments already in place. For instance, the ILO Convention on the Right of Association in Agriculture is key to eliminating child labour and achieving decent work for adults in agriculture. We encourage States to ratify, domesticate and implement international labour standards. We also strongly encourage governments to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas.

Finally, we hope to see a conference to follow-up on the Call to Action and the development of strategies for better international coordination and cooperation on eliminating all forms of child labour, especially in the agriculture sector.”

ENDS

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(*) The experts: Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the right to food; Ian Fry, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change; David R. Boyd, Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment; Koumba Boly Barry, Special Rapporteur on the right to education; Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; S. Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context; Felipe González Morales, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants; Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; E. Tendayi Achiume, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; Tomoya Obokata, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences; Marcos A. Orellana, Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes; Catherine S. Namakula, current Chair-Rapporteur, Barbara G. Reynolds, Vice-Chairperson, Dominique Day, Miriam Ekiudoko and Sushil Raj Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent; Elżbieta Karska (Chair-Rapporteur), Fernanda Hopenhaym (Vice Chairperson), Anita Ramasastry and Pichamon Yeophantong; Working Group on Business and Human Rights

The Independent Experts are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.