High Court rejects petition against Temple Mount ban for Jews on Jerusalem Day May 2019
The Court put the Police in charge of whether to permit them. This was not the first time they deferred to the police. The problem is that the only concern of the police is maintaining peace and they don’t factor in the need to assert Jewish rights OR INTERESTS according to the law.
Kahanist lawmaker plans anyway to march through the Old City’s Damascus Gate – a flashpoint of tensions in the lead-up to the most recent Gaza fighting – but is likely to do so on his own
By Josh Breiner, HAARETZ
The Flag March in Jerusalem’s Old City, in 2019.Credit: Olivier Fitoussi
The organizers of a planned right-wing march in Jerusalem said on Monday they had decided to cancel the event, set for Thursday, after Israeli police announced they wouldn’t allow the Flag March to pass through the OId City’s Muslim Quarter, citing security concerns.
The march was scheduled for Jerusalem Day last month, and was initially diverted due to security concerns as clashes between police and Palestinians in the city intensified, and dispersed after Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem from Gaza as tensions peaked. This resulted in an 11-day flare-up between Israel and Gaza.
The Flag March, in which right-wing Jewish groups parade through the Old City carrying Israeli flags to celebrate the reunification of Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War, was initially planned to pass through the Damascus Gate – a flashpoint of tensions in the lead-up to the most recent escalation. It was also to pass through Arab quarters and areas on the way to the Western Wall, where mass prayers were planned.
Following the organizers’ statements that the event has been canceled, police issued a clarification saying that they had made it clear in talks with organizers they can’t approve the march in its current route. “Should any alternative route or date be decided upon by the organizers, it will be examined,” police said, stressing that the political leadership is involved in decisions regarding the march.
Police assessed that the march’s route would need to be changed due to the risk of escalating tensions. Earlier Monday, the police held a meeting to assess the situation, in which intelligence showed that the consequences of the march could include renewed rocket fire on Israel and widespread riots in the Old City and on the Temple Mount.
Also on Monday, senior Hamas official Khalil al-Haya warned Israel and the international community against holding the march. If the procession comes near Al-Aqsa Mosque and East Jerusalem, he cautioned, May 11th – the date the Gaza flare-up began with rocket fire on Jerusalem – could repeat itself.
Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party and one of the march’s organizers, dubbed the decision a “shameful surrender to terrorism and to Hamas threats.” He slammed Israeli police for “not being able to protect those marching through the streets of Jerusalem with Israeli flags or the Jewish residents of Lod, Ramle and Acre,” naming mixed Arab-Jewish communities that experienced a wave of violent incidents.
“Now [Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai] is making [Hamas leader] Yahya Sinwar the one running Jerusalem,” Smotrich argued.
Yehuda Wald, the director-general of the Religious Zionism party, said that they would not hold the march without police approval. “We’ve been in contact with the police from the first moment,” he said, adding that the date and route of the Flag March was not approved, and that the police told them to inform the other organizations participating that the event was canceled.
“We will not march without police approval, because we are responsible for the students and marchers joining us,” he said. “Our will is to march there, out of an understanding that citizens can march with Israeli flags wherever they please – we want the country to take responsibility for this.”
In his own harsh remarks, Kahanist lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir, also of Religious Zionism, laid the blame on the police. This is despite the fact that the police didn’t order the march canceled, but only said that it would not be allowed to pass through specific areas considered more tense than other parts of the city.
Ben-Gvir said he intends to “march the entire route” on Thursday anyway. Police plan to allow the lawmaker, who enjoys parliamentary immunity, to march alone and under heavy security.
May Golan of Likud announced in a Tweet that she would be marching alongside Ben-Gvir. “We already know that we have a limp defense minister, but to be honest, I didn’t expect that the Israel Police would be afraid of Israeli flags waving in our capital city,” she said. The police are not under the purview of the defense minister, but of the public security minister, who is currently her own party’s Amir Ohana.
Earlier on Monday, Jerusalem Police officials met with the organizers to discuss changes to the route. Police proposed an alternative route in the predominantly Jewish western part of Jerusalem or delaying the march, but organizers decided to call it off.
Last week, during Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s visit to Washington, U.S. officials from the Biden administration expressed concern over the possibility of the Flag March sparking another escalation between Israel and Hamas.
On Saturday, Hamas called on Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to arrive en masse to the Al-Aqsa mosque on Thursday “to protect it from [Israel’s] plans.” Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar said, “We’ve proven to Israel that somebody’s protecting the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Gantz consulted with senior defense officials on Saturday night; after the meeting, he requested that the march be rerouted on Thursday. On Sunday, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai conducted his own situation assessment with senior police officers, including from the Jerusalem District.
Security officials say that the situation in the Gaza Strip is still very sensitive, and that the Hamas leader in the enclave, Yahya Sinwar, is looking for an excuse to escalate tensions with Israel – and may find one in the events in Jerusalem. According to those officials, Israel is still trying to enforce the new arrangements it made vis-à-vis Hamas after the cease-fire, and make sure the Qatari money to be transferred to the Strip will do so only via the Palestinian Authority.
@peloni
Netanyahu didn’t cancel it.
The police and the security establishment stated that they couldn’t provide sufficient security for the route through the Muslim Quarter, and the organizers cancelled the march because the only route they wanted was through the Muslim Quarter.
Ben Gvir said he will march there anyway, alone if necessary.
My opinion of Netanyahu is not cynical, it is based on reality.
At this point I can’t understand how anyone can even say his name without gagging.
I used to merely dislike his policies but now I think that he is simply vile.
Look up the word “decency” in the dictionary in case you forgot what it means.
A REMINDER: I CAN READ!!!
@Reader
Reader, I know your cynical opinion of Netanyahu, but that being stated, I am curious what reason he might have had for first cancelling the parade and resetting it.
Also, I read that the plan route of the renewed parade will be altered from the original route. Just FYI.
Netanyahu is trying to revive the march [emphasis mine].
He wants the same provocation and a rocket mess as the last time (a few more dead bodies, not a big deal, right?).
@Avigdor2
Very well stated, Avigdor2!
The Jerusalem Police, like the IDF, are supposed to protect citizens from threats of violence from no matter what source. Why are they not protecting the rights of Jewish citizens in peaceful marches with Israeli flags in “unified Jerusalem’? The fact remains that the Arabs living as citizens of Israel do not honestly and sincerely support Israel and are acting always with the aim of doing away with the symbols (flags) and indeed with any kind of Jewish presence in our Land. Until the issue of the right of the Jewish nation to assert itself in Jewish legislation without interference by the judiciary, i.e., the Supreme Court to overrule the will of the majority in our ‘democracy’, or through political pressure from those opposed to true Jewish sovereignty (predominantly from the political Left), there can be no claim to freedom of religion or the myth of the national basic law of Israel as a Jewish State. It is meaningless if Jews cannot pray or pass safely in all parts of the Jewish Homeland whether it be a peaceful march or praying at our holiest site, Har Habayit.
So, they saw fit to surrender to the Arab street and their Terrorist masters. A nice divination of things to come. A new face of Zionism where the police can not provide security for a parade in the streets of the capital. I did not expect this. A very great mistake by any standard. Peace at any price is no peace at all. And soon we will find the results of the proceedings from Washington. With Gantz leading his discussion with respect and behind closed doors…And Abbas’s requirement to form any gov’t thanks to the narcisism of Saar and others….So, yes, Obama is winning, even in the streets of Jerusalem, on the plenum of the Knessett and the within our own delegation to barter the best path upon which our mortal enemies may seek to wipe us from the map… he is winning.