Israeli police prevented hundreds of Jewish nationalist protesters from approaching the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday to avoid clashes that could lead to an escalation between Israel and Palestinian movements. Nationalist organizations had called for a big march in the Old City of Jerusalem, the scene in recent days of clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli police. A demonstration considered a gesture of “provocation” on the part of the government.
More than a thousand demonstrators carrying Israeli flags gathered in the early evening in Tsahal Square, near the town hall, opposite the Old City. ‘We want to go to the Old City of Jerusalem but our government is preventing us,’ said Pnina, a 62-year-old civil servant, as hundreds of protesters tried to approach Damascus Gate, the main entrance to the neighborhood Muslim in the city.
According to an AFP team on the spot, the police blocked access to the Damascus Gate to these demonstrators, including several supporters of far-right MP Itamar Ben Gvir, who had been banned from these places more early in the day by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. “I will not allow Ben Gvir’s political provocation to endanger Israeli soldiers and police, and further complicate their mission,” the prime minister said.
“I say it clearly (…) I will not bend,” retorted Ben Gvir. “Under what law am I not allowed to enter Damascus Gate?” »
Provocative gesture
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is “deeply concerned about the deterioration of the situation in Jerusalem,” his spokesman in New York said on Wednesday. He is in contact with “all parties to reduce tensions, prevent inflammatory actions and rhetoric. »
On Friday and Sunday, clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli police left more than 170 injured on the esplanade of the Mosques, the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest site in Judaism, as the celebrations of the Muslim month of Ramadan coincide. and Passover, the Jewish Passover.
The presence of Jews, who can visit the esplanade under specific conditions and times but cannot pray there by virtue of a tacit agreement, and of police officers on site during Ramadan, has been perceived by the Palestinians and several countries of the region as a gesture of provocation.
The coalition government of Mr. Bennett is also weakened by the escalation of tensions in Jerusalem, in particular on the esplanade of the Mosques, and the recent deadly attacks in Israel. The Arab Raam party, the first in history to back an Israeli government, on Sunday suspended its support for the coalition due to violence, while right-wing lawmakers within the coalition are under pressure to let go of a government deemed too much. favorable to the Arab minority, according to part of the opposition.
“Bennett, the security of the coalition is not the security of the state”, accused Mr. Ben Gvir, tenor of the opposition formation “Religious Zionism”, on Wednesday. Last year, the Islamist movement Hamas launched salvoes of rockets towards Israeli territory when a march bringing together ultranationalist organizations was to begin in the Old City of Jerusalem. This Wednesday evening, a rocket was once again fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, according to the Israeli army.