Flag March to be Allowed in Yerushalayim’s Old City

By Hamodia Staff

YERUSHALAYIM – The annual flag march in the Old City of Yerushalayim was authorized to proceed on Wednesday, despite recent tensions.

The office of Internal Security Minister Omer Barlev said the march would take place on May 29 along its “customary route” through Damascus Gate, the AP reported.

The march is attended by thousands of right-wing youth celebrating the capture of Yerushalyim in the 1967 war, waving Israeli flags, singing and chanting, has been a contentious affair, as it passes through the Arab section of the Old City. Many in the area regard the march as a provocation.

However, Barlev’s office said the decision was made after consultations with police. As in years past, the route will pass through Damascus Gate, down Hagay Street and to the Kosel.

Last year’s Gaza war erupted as the march was just getting underway, even after authorities changed the route at the last moment to avoid Damascus Gate.

The parade, attended annually by thousands of right-wing youths and activists, is meant to celebrate the city’s unification in 1967 but is widely viewed as a thumb in the eye of the city’s Palestinians, and tensions often rise around the event.

In 2021, rocket fire from Gaza targeted Yerushalayim just as the march was nearing Damascus Gate, kicking off 11 days of intense fighting.

Organizers of the march welcomed the decision, saying “There is nothing more suitable than a happy and unifying march, from the west of the city to the east, through the places that the IDF liberated 55 years ago, on the holiday of the capital of Israel.”