[News] Israeli mob chants for genocide in Jerusalem

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israeli-mob-chants-genocide-jerusalem
Israeli
mob chants for genocide in Jerusalem

Tamara Nassar <https://electronicintifada.net/people/tamara-nassar> - 16
June 2021
------------------------------
[image: A large group of flag-carrying Israelis gathers outside Damascus
gate]

Israelis shouting racist slogans rally at Damascus Gate to assert their
control over occupied East Jerusalem, 15 June.
APA images

Thousands of Israeli Jewish nationalists marched through Jerusalem chanting
racist and genocidal slogans against Palestinians on Tuesday.

This was part of an annual “March of the Flags” by far-right Israeli Jews
to celebrate Israel’s occupation and colonization of East Jerusalem.

Like in previous years, the mob waving Israeli flags spewed racist and
genocidal slogans against Palestinians and denigrated the Prophet Muhammad.

The march was originally planned for 10 May, Israel’s so-called Jerusalem
Day, but was canceled
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-attacks-gaza-after-jerusalem-defeat/32936>
due to the strength of protests by Palestinians which forced Israel into a
humiliating retreat.

Rescheduled for Tuesday, it was kept to a highly restricted route.

While the fanatical mob danced and chanted at Jerusalem’s iconic Damascus
Gate, the route approved by police did not allow them to enter the narrow
alleys of the Old City’s Muslim Quarter as they have in previous years.

Nonetheless a few dozen did enter the Old City.
Palestinians hailed the severe restrictions imposed by Israel as victory
for the deterrence they established when resistance factions in Gaza fired
rockets
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-attacks-gaza-after-jerusalem-defeat/32936>
towards Jerusalem last month.

The rocket fire was intended to defend the city’s Palestinian population
against escalating Israeli attacks and ethnic cleansing.

“The brave positions and decisions of the Palestinian resistance forced the
Israeli occupation to change the path of the route away from al-Aqsa
mosque, change the civil air routes and beef up the deployment of the Iron
Dome,” Hamas said
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-boasts-new-formula-of-deterrence-against-israel-after-flag-march/>
in response to Tuesday’s march.
Genocidal chants

Videos shot by journalists documented the genocidal slogans that the mob –
many apparently teenagers and children – chanted.

On Tuesday, as Israelis have on many previous occasions
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/death-arabs>, the mob chanted *mavet
la aravim* – “Death to the Arabs.”
Participants also chanted “Shuafat is burning” – a reference to a
Palestinian neighborhood – and “May your village burn.” Expressing their
religious, as well as their ethnic hatred, participants frequently chanted
“Muhammad is dead,” to denigrate the prophet of Islam and the faith of
Muslims. They were also heard singing a genocidal song documented
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/video-let-palestine-be-wiped-out-sings-jerusalem-day-mob/20651>
in previous Jerusalem Day marches. Some in the mob shouted filthy
expletives at journalists, including Suleiman Masudeh, a reporter for
Israel’s state broadcaster Kann.

Masudeh documented the participants shouting homophobic slogans at
journalists, and telling them to “Go work for the Arabs.” He said the crowd
was particularly vile towards Arab journalists.
When Palestinians tried to raise their own flag, they were attacked by
Israeli forces and their flags confiscated. Participation of politicians

Israeli police deployed around 2,000 officers to protect and guard the
racist mob.

Israel’s new government supported holding the march and several prominent
Israeli politicians joined it.

Itamar Ben-Gvir <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/itamar-ben-gvir>, an
extreme-right Israeli lawmaker, was warmly greeted by the mob as he
arrived.
Israeli media recently circulated 1995 footage
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/hero-who-murdered-29-palestinians>
of Ben-Gvir dressed up for the Jewish holiday of Purim
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/purim> as Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish
settler from Brooklyn who shot to death
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/hebron-still-under-siege-20-years-after-ibrahimi-mosque-massacre>
29 Palestinian men and boys as they prayed during Ramadan the year before.

Oren Hazan, a Likud Party lawmaker who once released a campaign ad
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-israeli-arab-lawmaker-files-complaint-against-oren-hazan-for-incitement-to-murder-1.7040861>
depicting himself killing a Palestinian lawmaker, was seen at the march:
PR damage control

Scenes of the racist mob circulated rapidly on social media, embarrassing
Israel and its lobby.

Avi Mayer <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/avi-mayer>, the global
communications chief for major Israel lobby group the American Jewish
Committee, tried to limit the damage by acknowledging the “despicable hate”
on display.
This is a notable change of tune for Mayer, whom The Electronic Intifada
previously documented personally attending and whitewashing
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-lobbys-death-arabs-damage-control>
at least one “Death to the Arabs” rally.

Yair Lapid, Israel’s alternate prime minister and foreign minister, said
the march “had to be approved” and applauded the “excellent” management of
the event.

Lapid then attempted to whitewash Israel by lamenting “that there are
extremist elements for whom the Israeli flag represents hatred and racism”
– as if racism and violence against Palestinians are not foundational to
Zionism, Israel’s state ideology.
Israel bombs Gaza again

Israel’s 11-day bombing campaign
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/may-2021-attack-gaza> in Gaza in May
came amid similar provocations by Israeli forces and settlers in Jerusalem.

While Israeli police approved Tuesday’s march, they rerouted it so that the
mob would not enter the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.

Hamas, the political and resistance organization running the interior of
the Gaza Strip, had warned that renewed attacks on Palestinians in
Jerusalem could endanger the fragile ceasefire.

Its military wing, the Qassam Brigades, urged Palestinians in
Jerusalem to confront
the march and defend the city
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/omar-karmi/placeholder-government-going-nowhere>
.

Following confirmation that the march would take place, Palestinians in
Gaza burned tires near the boundary fence with Israel and launched
incendiary balloons in protest.

Israel bombed what it said were several Hamas targets in the southern Gaza
Strip late Tuesday night, presenting its renewed attacks on the besieged
enclave as a response to the incendiary balloons.

As Palestinians attempted to clean the Damascus Gate area after the march,
Israeli forces attacked them and confiscated their brooms.
Israeli media reported
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-jerusalem-march-provocations-risk-reigniting-israel-hamas-violence-un-warns-1.9906801>
that more than a dozen Palestinians were arrested by Israeli forces.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported
<https://www.facebook.com/PalestineRCS/posts/4054340174685785> almost 90
Palestinian injuries on Tuesday, more than half of them in and around
Jerusalem.

*Ali Abunimah contributed reporting and translations.*
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