Israeli celebrations for annexing Jerusalem
Palestine-Israel, Culture, 5/25/1998

The whole city of Jerusalem looked like it was being conquered again by Israel. Heavily armed soldiers and policemen took up positions early on Sunday morning in every street in East Jerusalem and inside the Old City, to guard the busy schedule of marking the anniversary of Jerusalem's fall into Israel's hands in 1967.

But their presence was not sufficient to deter a number of angry Palestinians who pelted Jewish marchers in the streets of Jerusalem with stones. Two right-wing participants in the march were hit with stones and lightly wounded as they walked down the Sultan Suleiman Street next to the walls between Damascus and Herod's Gates. The stone throwers managed to escape but not before they stirred tension in the area.

Palestinian cabinet secretary Ahmad Abdul Rahman said it was an utmost case of sarcasm when Israel labeled what it did in East Jerusalem on Sunday as celebrations. "This is a reoccupation of the city. Jerusalem is again under military rule," he said.

Outside Jaffa Gate, another stations for the occupiers' march, some 50 Israeli peace activists gathered to protest the Israeli celebrations of the city's occupation anniversary. Their banners transmitted a message which none of the parade's participants liked or agreed with. One banner said that the "Jerusalem day is a day of lies" while another read that "Jerusalem should become two capitals for two nations."

A right wing activist attacked a group of banner wavers after he read a slogan saying: "Palestinians too live in East Jerusalem." For those settlers and their supporters, the mere reference to the Palestinians is enough to stir their sometimes violent reactions. The police watched, then pushed the assailant backwards but made no arrests. Unlike Palestinians, Israelis attacking Israelis are not necessarily arrested. A few words are traded with the police and the case is usually closed.

Sitting on a house's roof in Sheikh Jarrah, Yousef Abu Ta'a watched the scene which he has seen over the past 31 years as Israel's top political and military echelon gather on the other side of the main road for the main event. "All looks the same, only faces change," he said referring to members of the Israeli government who took their seats in the front as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to keep Jerusalem under Israel's rule "forever."

Netanyahu and other speakers, including Israeli president Ezer Weizman, said it was a pleasant divine surprise for them when Jordan decided to join the war in 1967. "That had given us the chance to liberate Jerusalem though we had no troops around after we sent all our army to Sinai and the Golan Heights," said Weizman, who was commander of the Israeli force during he 1967 war. He said that Israel was forced to mobilize reserve troops to take over Jerusalem from the Jordanian army two days after the war started on June 5.

The thousands of participants in what Israel called its "Jerusalem Day Parade" had caused huge traffic jams in the city that lasted through the day into the late hours of the night.

Dr. Walid Awad, who lives in Beit Safafa, on the southern outskirts of Jerusalem, said he had to take a detour, which delayed him at least 45 minutes more to get to the northern part of the city to visit a patient. "I came across one of the police roadblocks near Jaffa Gate, on my usual way to East Jerusalem. A policeman stopped me and said I was not allowed to go through. I explained I had a patient waiting at home but that did not help. Though it was close to 2200 hrs. at night, the policeman insisted the Jewish celebrations had not finished yet and that the road was closed. He did, however, allow a number of Jewish cars through."

Every year on this occasion, Jewish fanatic groups plan to break into Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem where they claim the second Jewish temple existed more than two thousand years ago. It was due to their threat to repeat their attempt again on Sunday that tensions rose in the city and Palestinian national figures and bodies said they wouldn't allow those Jews any entry into the Mosque.

"Only over our dead bodies will they cross," declared Ahmad Al Batsh, a Jerusalemite member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. He said the Palestinians would never allow those Jewish factions to incite against the holiest shrines in Islam and warned: "Our Palestinian people in Jerusalem and in various parts of the Palestinian homeland will not remain silent."

Al Batsh strongly condemned Israel's policy against the holy sites in Jerusalem, whether Muslim or Christian. He noted that only one day after last week's "unwelcome visit by West Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert to the Al Aqsa Mosque Jewish zealots tried to set one of the mosque gates ablaze." He called on the Arab and Islamic world to shoulder their responsibility in defending the holy shrines in Palestine in general and in Jerusalem in particular.

The arson next to the mosque and the threats of Jewish zealots to storm the mosque had prompted a great amount of worry and concern among Islamic leaders in the city. In calls issued by the last weekend, Jerusalemites were urged to go to Al Aqsa Mosque en masse in order to be there "to defend the holy shrine" if Jews tried to enter by force. A few years ago, a similar threat by Jews ended with bloody clashes in the Al Aqsa Mosque, which was stormed by Israeli troops. A number of Palestinians were killed and dozens of others wounded in the clashes. Since then, the Israeli police have decided to take threats very seriously and on Sunday they again banned the so-called "Temple Mount Faithful" group from entering the mosque.

Previous Stories:
  Bethlehem 2000: Birthplace of Jesus to have a big party   (5/21/1998)
  Palestinian academic calls for preservation of Arab sites' names   (11/26/1997)
  Children in Jerusalem have a chance to play   (10/17/1997)

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