In Jerusalem, eve of Ramadan marked by extremist Israelis' racist taunts

JUNE 6, 2016 5:48 P.M. (UPDATED: JUNE 7, 2016 1:37 P.M.)

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Ultranationalist Israelis gather outside Damascus Gate to commence the flag

march in celebration of Jerusalem Day, June 5, 2016. (MaanImages/Yumna
Patel)
By: Jaclynn Ashly, Yumna Patel
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- In the Muslim quarter of the Old City in occupied East
Jerusalem, where Israeli army checkpoints, barriers, raids, and the presence of
extremist Jewish groups are an almost daily occurrence, the holy month of
Ramadan is anticipated as a time of relative calm and respite.
As the month-long Muslim holiday begins, Palestinian residents and Muslim
worshipers transform the typically dark, narrow alleyways of the Old City into
glittering walkways, adorned with hanging lights, lanterns decorated with Arabic
scripture, and filled with the sounds of Ramadan songs as worshipers prepare
for the first day of fasting.
However this year, on the eve of Ramadan, the usual sights and sounds of the
Old City were put on hold and drowned out by several thousand ultranationalist
and religiously conservative Israelis marching through the city shouting anti-

Palestinian chants, harassing Palestinian shop owners, and waving Israeli flags, as
they flooded the narrow streets of the Muslim Quarter on Sunday.
The flag march, as it is known, is a central part of Jerusalem Day, celebrated
by the ultra-right religious Zionist community to commemorate the 1967 Israeli
annexation of occupied East Jerusalem, the same day Palestinians remember the
Naksa, meaning setback, referring to the mass displacement that
accompanied the Israeli takeover of the Palestinian territory.
Young Israeli men, elderly, children, and parents fumbling to push their baby
strollers on the narrow cobbled alleyways, all took part in the march, as Israeli
soldiers barricaded streets leading to the Muslim Quarter, leaving many
Palestinians coming home from shopping for the start of Ramadan stranded
behind Israeli blockades.

A Palestinian family is held behind an Israeli police barrier in the Muslim quarter
of the Old City, as Jewish paraders pass by in celebration of Jerusalem Day,
June 5, 2016. (MaanImages/Yumna Patel)
Israeli youth taunted and verbally harassed Palestinians stationed outside their
closed shops, with several marchers throwing trash and water bottles at
Palestinian pedestrians.

Popular chants heard during the march were centered on the destruction of
Palestine. Locals told Maan one of the chants heard numerous times alluded to a
Hebrew insult, calling on Palestinians to be erased from the earth and from all
of history.
Other chants heard included Mohammed is dead, and the Temple will be built,
the [Al-Aqsa] Mosque will be burned, -- referring to right-wing Israelis' calls to
destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and replace it with a third Jewish temple.
Intermittently, Israeli soldiers stopped the march to allow Palestinians stranded
behind barricades to cross to their homes, who were met with Israelis shouting
insults and waving Israeli flags at them while they rushed past the screaming
marchers with their families.
Most Palestinians during the march closed their shops and stayed inside.
However, a few Palestinians came on their balcony to look down on the march,
with several shop owners refusing Israeli army requests to shut down their
stores.

Palestinian residents in the Muslim quarter of the Old City look down at
extremist Jewish Israelis waving flags below in celebration of Jerusalem Day,
June 5, 2016. (MaanImages/Yumna Patel)

Middle-aged Israeli men were seen pointing and laughing towards a crowd of
Palestinians stuck behind a police barrier, as the Jewish men imitated the Arab
zaghrouta, or ululation, commonly performed by Arab women at weddings or
holidays as a form of celebration.
Maan reporters witnessed a group of Jewish boys heckling an elderly Palestinian
man standing outside of his shop, which he refused to close for the march,
chanting nationalist slogans in Hebrew while they danced in circles in front of
the man.
Ali Jiddah, an Afro-Palestinian who lives in a small Old City neighborhood
adjoining the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, told Maan before the march began
that, like every year, the [marchers] will come down in an arrogant way. They
will be shouting, insulting people, even sometimes attacking people. Due to this,
most of us will not go outside [during the march].
For Jiddah, the march reflects the reality of the racism and fascism which
has characterized Israeli policies against Palestinians, adding: If we want to get
rid of these marchers, we must end the Israeli occupation.
A Palestinian restaurant owner, whose restaurants free internet attracts
endless groups of hungry tourists, told Ma'an that the parade was much more
than just a celebration for the Israeli participants. The way they dance, they
want to show us their muscles, he said, just as a group of Jewish teenagers
passed by, clad in blue and white, singing at the top of their lungs. They are
saying we are not afraid, Jerusalem is for us, not for you.

A young Jewish boy sits on top of his father's shoulders as they march with
other Israelis in the ultranationalist right wing flag march to celebrate
Jerusalem Day on June 5, 2016. (MaanImages/Yumna Patel)
According to the restaurateur, who has held onto his lot just across the
Austrian hospice for more than 22 years, in previous years Israeli marchers put
small items in the locks of shuttered Palestinian shops in order to jam them and
prevent store owners from reopening after the march had passed. Now, he said,
we make sure to cover the locks before we go home.
As Israeli marchers trickled out of the Muslim Quarter, a crowd of Palestinians
and Israeli soldiers began to gather around a young Palestinian boy, whom Israeli
forces were attempting to detain for carrying a Palestinian flag. However, an
Israeli lawyer who witnessed the situation intervened and convinced Israeli
security forces to let him go.
After marchers cleared from the Muslim Quarter to make way for Palestinians
getting ready to make their way to Al-Aqsa for Ramadan prayers, remnants of
pamphlets of Quranic verses and Muslim prayers were found ripped up on the
street amid leftover trash thrown by the Israeli marchers.

Pamphlets of Quranic verses and Muslim prayers ripped up and tossed with trash
by Israeli marchers celebrating Jerusalem Day on June 5, 2016.
(MaanImages/Yumna Patel)
Earlier in the day, 208 right-wing Israelis entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque
compound to mark the start of the march, with Israeli police detaining three of
them for violating international agreements prohibiting non-Muslim worship at
the site.
Although an urgent petition was submitted to the Israeli High Court to prevent
Israeli extremists from marching through the Muslim Quarters of the Old City,
it was rejected before the start of the march, paving the way for Israeli
settlers to completely shut down the Palestinian neighborhoods.
According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, human rights attorney Itay Mack filed
the petition, writing that this decision [on the route] is extremely unreasonable
and seriously impinges on basic rights that have long been recognized by this
honorable court, such as the freedom of worship and the movement of
worshipers, of residents and merchants within the Muslim Quarter and outside
it.
A similar petition filed last year was rejected, though the court noted that the
police must show zero tolerance toward racist calls, particularly Death to

Arabs, which have been increasingly heard in recent years, a warning the court
reiterated again in Sundays ruling.
Despite the court order, racist chants and verbal harassment remained a central
focus for this years march participants. However, Maan reporters on the scene
witnessed Israeli soldiers and march organizers who lined both sides of the
street leading from Damascus Gate to the Western Wall preventing several
Israelis from physically harassing and assaulting Palestinians standing outside
their shops.
Israeli forces were seen removing a red-faced and visibly passionate young
Israeli teen from the crowd, and detaining him near one of the police barricades.
The boy, crouched down with his Israeli flag between his legs, cried hysterically
as Israeli police prevented him from leaving. Locals confirmed that the Israeli
youth was removed from the parade for yelling inciteful and racist chants at
Palestinian pedestrians.
For the past few years, dozens of cases have been documented every year of
teens participating in the march banging on doors and windows in the Muslim
Quarter with their flagpoles, cursing Palestinian pedestrians and making racist
remarks.
Several Palestinians emphasized to Maan during the march that the event was a
reflection of the violence and racism that has characterized their everyday lives
in occupied East Jerusalem, where Israeli settlers have steadily expanded into
the Palestinian territory, displacing Palestinians from their homes along the way.

A crowd of Palestinian onlookers gather behind an Israeli police barricade in

order to prevent clashes with Jewish extremists celebrating Jerusalem Day,
June 5, 2016. (MaanImages/Yumna Patel)