Israel has deployed over 2,000 police officers to oversee a contentious march Thursday evening by flag-waving Jewish nationalists through the principal Palestinian thoroughfare in Jerusalem’s Old City.
The event commemorates Israel’s reunification of Jerusalem during the 1967 war, following the city’s division in 1948 when its eastern part came under Jordanian control.
The march falls just after five days when airstrikes and rocket attacks were traded between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. With the ink on a cease-fire not yet dry, the flag parade seems almost like a taunting invitation to renew the fighting—a case of “What could possibly go wrong?”
The Israeli authorities have greenlighted the procession through the Old City’s Damascus Gate. An identical event two years ago ignited an 11-day mini-war between Israel and armed groups in the Gaza Strip. As in the past, Palestinians view these visits to the city’s sensitive Arab neighborhoods as a provocation.
Many participants in today’s march view it as a peaceful display of appreciation for the holy city and a tribute to the 1967 victory that they consider miraculous. Others, however, will use the occasion for conspicuous, in-your-face displays of aggression, which ironically will feed the sense of underlying vulnerability, weakness, and insecurity on both sides.
Despite some marchers in previous years chanting anti-Arab slogans and displaying aggression toward Palestinians, Chief Supt. Yoram Segal, from the Israel Police, assures the public of a zero-tolerance policy toward incitement or violence that could endanger bystanders.
With weary predictability, Hamas has raised the stakes by calling on Palestinians to confront the parade. As the region braces itself for what might come, one can’t help but ask: Haven’t we had enough?