Police readying for tensions ahead of annual Jerusalem Day Flag March on Monday

Police are bracing for friction ahead of the annual Jerusalem Day Flag March slated for Monday, which will see thousands of national religious Israelis parade through the Old City’s Muslim Quarter toward the Western Wall.

Thousands of officers and border cops will be deployed in Jerusalem on the holiday, which marks the reunification of the city in the wake of the Six Day War.

The parade will take its usual route, beginning at the Jerusalem Great Synagogue, continuing into the Old City via Damascus Gate, and ending at the Western Wall.

To make way for marchers, police will close several roads to traffic, including the main thoroughfare between West and East Jerusalem.

Extremist Jewish youth attending the Flag March have been known to harass and beat Palestinians during the procession, especially as it enters the Old City through Damascus Gate.

Last year’s march saw several attacks on Palestinians and journalists by marchers, who chanted anti-Arab refrains and plastered stickers on shuttered shops supporting the ideology of the late ultranationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane and calling for the expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Officers arrested 18 suspects for violent offenses over the course of the day.

Police say they will “work to prevent all forms of violence or provocation,” in a statement this afternoon. They further call on participants and the wider public to “refrain from physical or verbal violence, and allow the event to proceed peacefully and lawfully.”