<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-top-anchor"></div>
<div id="gmail-toolbar" class="gmail-toolbar-container">
</div><div class="gmail-container" dir="ltr" lang="en">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element">
<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/jewish-mobs-attack-palestinians-during-jerusalem-rampage">electronicintifada.net</a>
<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Jewish mobs attack Palestinians during Jerusalem rampage</h1>
<p class="gmail-node__submitted">
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/tamara-nassar">Tamara Nassar</a></span> -
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span class="gmail-date-display-single">30 May 2022</span></span> </p>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div>
<span><img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2022-05/220530_-_march-of-the-flags.jpg?itok=MqZU_IWa×tamp=1653905079" alt="Crowd of Israeli flag-carriers marches, some raise their middle fingers" title="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="460" height="306"></span><p><font size="1">Israeli
Jewish extremists marching through the Old City of Jerusalem to
celebrate its occupation and colonization, on 29 May 2022.</font></p>
<font size="1"><span>ZUMA Press Wire</span></font><p>Tens of
thousands of Israeli Jewish ultranationalists marched through Jerusalem
on Sunday to demonstrate their hatred towards Palestinians and assert
dominance over the militarily occupied city.</p>
<p>Many attacked Palestinians and chanted for genocide.</p>
<p>This was part of the annual “March of the Flags” on <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jerusalem-day">Jerusalem Day</a>, a holiday invented by Israel to celebrate its occupation and colonization of the city in 1967.</p>
<p>Over 2,600 extremists entered the al-Aqsa mosque compound on Sunday, an unprecedented number, <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-707948">according</a> to Israeli media.
</p>
A large crowd also gathered at the iconic Damascus Gate to Jerusalem’s
Old City, waving the flags of Israel and the anti-Palestinian Jewish
nationalist group Lehava:
Israeli Jews began their provocations early in the day. Reporters <a href="https://twitter.com/nirhasson/status/1530880356018278400">noted</a> that they were more violent and confrontational on Sunday than in previous years.
<p>Footage shared by <em>Haaretz</em> journalist Nir Hasson shows Israelis throwing a chair and other objects at Palestinians, who throw objects back:
</p>
Another widely shared video shows an Israeli youth pulling out pepper
spray and using it on a Palestinian woman at close range:
Many in the mob chanted “death to the Arabs,” “May your village burn,”
and “Muhammad is dead” – a denigrating reference to the prophet. These
are common <a href="https://twitter.com/nirhasson/status/1531018019887009796">chants</a>
heard year after year.
Israeli Jews can even be heard chanting “Muhammad is dead” while
paramedics carry a wounded Palestinian on a stretcher through a narrow
street in the Old City. It is noticeable that all the shops, typically
owned by Palestinians, are closed – unable to do business because of the
invasion.
Another video shows a mob, which appears to include children, chanting
“A Jew is a soul, an Arab is a son of a whore.”
In this clip, one of the Jewish extremists, laughing and clapping, tells
journalists “there is no Shireen, Shireen is dead.”
This is a reference to the <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/al-jazeeras-iconic-voice-palestine-killed-during-israeli-raid">killing</a> of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/will-icc-help-israel-get-away-shireen-abu-aklehs-murder/35556">by all indications </a> at the hands of an Israeli soldier earlier this month.
<p><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ateret-cohanim">Ateret Cohanim</a>
– a settler group heavily involved in the ethnic cleansing of the
Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood – set up a free food stand in the Old City.
</p>
Other videos show flags of <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/lehava">Lehava</a>, a Jewish extremist group whose focus is <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-steps-its-war-mixed-marriages/25051">preventing mixing</a> of Jews and non-Jews.
Lehava and its ultra-radicalized youth are a <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-lobbys-death-arabs-damage-control">regular presence</a> at Israel’s frequent “death to the Arabs” marches.
<p>In this video, a Jewish extremist brandishes a handgun at a group of
Palestinians, which included journalists, near Damascus Gate. Another
marcher pepper sprays a Palestinian woman in the face for no apparent
reason:
</p>
<h2>Resistance restraint</h2>
<p>Backed by current and former Israeli political leaders and under the
protection of the Israeli police, Jewish extremists took a deliberately
provocative route through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, as they
have done in previous years, ending the march at the Western Wall.
</p>
The march was larger than in previous years but like earlier occasions, it <a href="https://twitter.com/nirhasson/status/1530948415055609859">included</a> many children.
An estimated 25,000 people <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-707948">participated</a>, far exceeding the 16,000 limit supposedly <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/planned-jewish-nationalist-flag-march-festival-hate">imposed</a> by Israeli police.
<p>The march is intended to demonstrate Israeli sovereignty over
Jerusalem, after Palestinian resistance groups last year launched a
major military operation from Gaza, the first specifically intended to
respond to Israeli aggression in the city.
</p>
In response to Israel’s refusal to end its ethnic cleansing and other attacks in Jerusalem, Hamas <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-attacks-gaza-after-jerusalem-defeat/32936">fired rockets</a> toward the city on 10 May 2021, when that year’s “March of the Flags” was originally scheduled, but quickly had to be canceled.
<p>This was viewed as a significant defeat for Israel, which responded <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/may-2021-attack-gaza">by intensely bombarding Gaza for 11 days</a>, killing more than 250 Palestinians.</p>
<p>The march did eventually <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israeli-mob-chants-genocide-jerusalem">go ahead</a> last June, but the police did not approve a route through the Muslim Quarter.</p>
<p>In spite of warnings this year by Hamas that Israel’s constant
provocations in Jerusalem could escalate into a full-scale war, Israeli
authorities allowed the march, fully aware of the possible consequences.</p>
<p>No rockets were fired from Gaza on Sunday, in what can be interpreted
as an effort by resistance groups to avoid a full-blown war.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, starting early in the day Jewish nationalists roamed
through the Old City and the al-Aqsa mosque compound under heavy police
protection, waving flags and chanting.</p>
<p>A number of former and current Israeli leaders joined in provocations
on Sunday, including former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
extreme right-wing Israeli lawmaker <a href="https://twitter.com/PalinfoAr/status/1530944613002928128">Itamar Ben-Gvir</a>.
</p>
<h2>“Us or them”</h2>
<p>The annual march generally draws the most openly racist and fanatical
segments of Israeli society, but the settler-colonial attitudes they
represent are widely shared.</p>
<p>An exchange between a hairdresser and her client on Sunday <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-707971">reported</a> in <em>The Jerusalem Post</em> reflects the casual genocidal racism prevalent in Israeli society.</p>
<p>“But, you know, Corona wasn’t the real virus here. You know what the real virus is? Arabs,” the hairdresser reportedly said.</p>
<p>“You know, I think that the police would come after me if they knew what I was thinking.”</p>
<p>“They are a virus and they need to be rounded up and put in
extermination camps,” the stylist added. “There’s no way that we’re
going to be able to live together. It’s us or them.”</p> <h3>
<span><br></span></h3>
</div></div></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div></div>
</div>
</div>