Israel insists and the factions are being challenged.. What do you know about the "flags march"?

A state of extreme anticipation surrounds the "flags march" that the Israeli government headed by Naftali Bennett decided to organize in Jerusalem on Sunday, May 29, 2022, and was announced by Israeli Minister of Internal Security Omer Bar-Lev.

The "Flags March", also known as the "Flags Dance", is considered by Palestinians and many Israelis to be a provocative act by nationalist groups and extremist settlement movements.

History of the "March of the Flags"

1968: The march was organized for the first time by Rabbi Yehuda Hazani of the yeshiva known as Mercaz Harav-Rabbi Center and turned into an annual tradition.

The march is organized on what is known as Jerusalem Day, in which Israel commemorates the occupation of the eastern part of Jerusalem in 1967, which it calls the day of the unification of Jerusalem and the establishment of Israeli and Jewish sovereignty over the city and its Jewish religious sites.

- The number of participants in the march has increased from year to year, and its number is currently estimated at more than 30,000, most of whom are religious patriots from Jerusalem and settlements in the occupied West Bank and all over Israel.

- The occupation forces force the Palestinians to close their shops in conjunction with the passage of the march from the Old City, where the participants provocatively attack Palestinian homes and shops, shout "Death to Arabs" slogans, and dance carrying Israeli flags.

The march is funded by the “Am Kalpia” religious settlement association, the Jerusalem municipality, the Israeli Ministry of Education and the Jewish Quarter Development and Rehabilitation Company, and the amount of funding in 2018 amounted to about $300,000.

Between the years 2010-2016, the Israeli occupation police prevented the marchers from entering the Old City through the Lions Gate.

- 2011: The Israeli occupation police diverted the path of the march to pass from Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood through Street No. 1, which separates the eastern and western parts of Jerusalem, and allowed the participants to enter the Old City through several doors.

Between 2015-2016: The Israeli Supreme Court rejected petitions submitted by Israeli left-wing and human rights organizations to prevent the march from passing through the Muslim Quarter.

- 2017: On the 50th anniversary of the occupation of Jerusalem, the march participants were allowed to circumambulate the walls of the Old City and also enter it through the Mughrabi Gate.

Operation "Sword of Jerusalem"

2021: Under the threat of the Palestinian resistance, the Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu prevented the march from passing through Bab al-Amud and transferred it to Bab al-Khalil.

The Palestinian resistance fired a batch of rockets towards Jerusalem, forcing the Israeli security services to immediately disperse the march, and the “Sword of Jerusalem” operation, according to the Palestinian name, and “The Guard of the Fences,” according to the Israeli name, erupted.

- Following the end of the war on Gaza, the flag march was reorganized on June 15, 2022, within the traditional path, and this was considered the first important decision of the new government in Israel headed by Naftali Bennett, as it passed through Bab al-Amud amid a state of tension and anticipation.

2022: The organizers of the march decided to limit the number of participants in crossing Old Jerusalem to reach the Al-Buraq Wall at 16,000, half of whom will walk through Bab al-Amud to al-Wad Road, while the other half will pass through Bab al-Khalil.

- The Israeli occupation police mobilized about 3,000 personnel to secure the path of the march and summoned 3 reserve battalions of the Border Police, in addition to deploying thousands of police throughout Israel for fear of any deterioration in security, and declared the police on high alert.

The Israeli army expanded the deployment of the Iron Dome system around Jerusalem and in several areas in central and southern Israel, in anticipation of the Palestinian resistance launching rockets at the time of the march.

- The leader of the extremist "Lahava" organization, Bentzi Gopstein, called for the storming of Al-Aqsa to be considered the day the demolition of the Dome of the Rock began.

- One day after this call was launched, the Israeli Minister of Internal Security, Omer Bar-Lev, after a meeting with Inspector General of Police Yaakov Shabtai, approved the passage of the "Flags March" from Bab al-Amud and the Islamic Quarter in the Old City to the Al-Buraq Wall.

Palestinian factions warn

May 26, 2022: The Israeli Court of Appeal overturned a ruling by a district court judge that Jewish extremists' performance of Talmudic rituals at Al-Aqsa does not constitute a breach of security, which means that these rituals are cancelled.

- The Palestinian presidency said, in a statement, that the Palestinians are able to protect Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian holy sites, as they did in the issue of the Gates and the Deal of the Century, as it put it.

-Hamas movement said that the Israeli government's violation of the red lines would explode the situation, and called on mediators and decision-makers in the region to put pressure on Israel to rein in it.

Hamas affirmed in its statement that the resistance will not abandon its duty to protect the Palestinian people and their sanctities, and that it is ready to deal with all scenarios.

The Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, warned that if Israel violated the Temple Mount, it would cause an "explosion in the region."

Nasrallah said: "I want to tell the enemy government... and those concerned with the regional situation. Any violation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock will explode the region. It will provoke all Arab and Islamic peoples and every free person."

- The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported that the US Embassy warned its citizens not to enter the Old City of Jerusalem in conjunction with the flags march.