Security forces gear up for potential violence at Jerusalem Day nationalist Flag March

Security forces are gearing up for potential violence at today’s annual Jerusalem Day Flag March, in which thousands of national religious Israelis are expected to parade through the Old City’s Muslim Quarter toward the Western Wall.

Thousands of police officers and law enforcement personnel will be deployed throughout the capital.

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 the Muslim Quarter’s 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.