Thousands Of Far-Right Israelis Marched Through Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter, Chanting “Death To Arabs”

Tens of thousands of far-right Israelis marched through the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City on May 14, chanting "Death to Arabs" and "May your village burn," as Israel's far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed one of Islam's holiest sites and raised an Israeli flag.

Every year, Israel celebrates Jerusalem Day, which is a national holiday marking the moment in June 1967 when Israeli forces seized East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank from Jordan during a six-day war with neighboring Arab states.

Palestinians and most of the international community consider East Jerusalem to be occupied Palestinian territory and the future capital of a Palestinian state.

Over the past 15 years in particular, there has been a sharp increase in far-right attacks surrounding the day, with far-right Jewish groups systematically harassing Palestinian shopkeepers and residents in the Muslim Quarter, according to independent Israeli outlet +972 Magazine.

This year, Ben-Gvir led a group of Jewish Israelis into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound — the third-holiest site in Islam — where he displayed an Israeli flag and declared, "The Temple Mount is in our hands."

Jordan condemned the move, calling it a blatant violation of international law and a flagrant breach of the historical and legal status quo, according to the Times of Israel.

In the early afternoon, thousands of Jewish Israelis poured into the Muslim Quarter, roaming the streets and targeting journalists and left-wing Israeli activists, interfering with filming, spitting, shoving and chanting racist slogans including "Muhammad is dead," "a Jew has a soul, an Arab is a son of a bitch," and "death to Arabs,” according to +972 Magazine.

Hours after the march ended, settlers attacked a village near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, setting fire to a mosque and several cars and leaving behind graffiti reading "For the liberation of Jerusalem,” the Times of Israel and +972 Magazine reported.

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