Reuters photo.
Jerusalem: On the occasion of the annual celebration of Israel, which captured East Jerusalem in 1967, Israelis paraded the Old City here chanting racist slogans such as “Death to Arabs” and “We will burn your village”, The Guardian reported.
The demonstrations were conducted by a crowd of mostly teens and young men who waved the Israeli blue and white flags and chanted the problematic slogans, intending to humiliate Palestinians residing under occupation.
Palestinians were reportedly barred from going into the Old City by the authorities.
Amid the demonstrations, a group threw stones and bottles at the reporters who were there covering the event. The attack injured three journalists, including a Palestinian.
Police, informing that the attackers were arrested, said that the incident was an “isolated” one.
One of the journalists who was at the Damascus gate stated that the attack was unprovoked. There were some women next to them, wearing Hijab, at the gate and some from the marchers- “Groups of extremist Zionists- threw glass bottles and sticks at them. According to him, the attackers were trying to hinder the media from showing the world what they were doing.
A Palestinian community leader, Fakhri Abu Diab, who was outside the al-Aqsa mosque and was giving a telephone interview to Israel’s Ynet news, was forced out of the Old City by security officers. One of them smashed his phone and warned him not to return to the city.
But the police spokesperson has not responded to Guardian’s request for comment.
Israel illegally annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 war and viewed it as its “eternal undivided capital”, while Palestinians see it as their future capital.