Before Jerusalem Day march, opponents aim to thwart racism
Citing recurrent nationalistic violence, local activists are mulling ways of protesting May’s annual flag parade through Old City’s Muslim Quarter
Elhanan Miller is the former Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel
In a small office in downtown Jerusalem, some two dozen activists met on Monday evening to strategize ahead of Jerusalem Day, a national holiday scheduled for May 17.
The group, calling itself “Jerusalem Says No to Racism,” was not there to discuss the festivities enacted by law in 1968 to celebrate the reunification of the capital following the Six Day War. Instead, the activists sat in a large circle, brainstorming about possible ways of protesting a day which, they claimed, has become increasingly nationalistic and polarizing to residents of the capital.
“Let us stop the march of hatred and violence,” read the title of an email inviting participants to the meeting, referring to the annual march of flags attended by thousands, which traditionally enters the Old City via the Muslim Quarter en route to the Western Wall.
“Year after year, Jerusalem Day becomes a platform for extremely harsh violence,” said Neta Polizer, a 26-year-old Arabic literature student at Hebrew University. Last year, Polizer witnessed a large group of Jewish youths shouting racist slogans as they walked through the Muslim Quarter, and then continued to chant on King George Street in western Jerusalem.
“They were chanting ‘Muhammad is dead’ and ‘Death to the Arabs.’ It’s painful to witness, because these aren’t just chants, it’s incitement that becomes ecstatic. Guys were jumping up and down, adults as well as youngsters. Every year this day brings out the bad in people.”
Jerusalem Day celebrations were controversial from the get-go. It was the Chief Rabbinate, headed by Ashkenazi chief rabbi Isser Unterman, which first called for the enshrinement of the 28th of Iyar as a day of thanksgiving “without taking the government’s opinion into account” in the spring of 1968.
Young members of the National Religious Party Mafdal heeded Unterman’s call, preparing guided tours to battlefield sites across Jerusalem and a religious ceremony at the Western Wall plaza, against the directive of Levi Eshkol’s government. Facing objection by Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek, prime minister Eshkol and even Mafdal ministers — ending in an appeal to the Supreme Court — the organizers were pressured to move the festivities into the Old City, where they publicly implored the government “to celebrate Jerusalem’s unity as a holiday for generations.”
But violence, both verbal and physical, has marred the celebrations in recent years. In 2014, flag-carrying Israelis were filmed skirmishing with Palestinians at Damascus Gate. On nearby Salah Ad-Din Street, Palestinians stoned an Egged bus, injuring seven Israelis. The previous year, similar disturbances led to the arrest of 23 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
In a bid to prevent the same dynamic from reoccurring in 2015, Jerusalem-based nonprofit Ir Amim and the Secular Yeshiva appealed to Mayor Nir Barkat and the Jerusalem Police on March 30, requesting them to prevent the flag march from passing through the Muslim Quarter.
“Considering the escalation in Jewish nationalistic violence against the Palestinian population of Jerusalem since last summer, there is no justification to place the residents of the Muslim Quarter at risk by extremists who may take advantage of the march,” wrote attorney Eitay Mack on behalf of the two organizations.
On Monday, Jerusalem police approved the march in its previous route through the Muslim Quarter, Haaretz reported.
Hamutal Blanc, a political science and Middle East history student at Hebrew University, said she and some activist friends created “Jerusalem Says No to Racism” in response to the “outburst of violence and racism” following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers and one Palestinian in Jerusalem last summer.
“In my mind, ours is the voice of the consensus. Most residents of this city don’t hate Arabs or incite violence. The problem is that the voice present on the street was very racist and violent. Our task is to give voice to the silent majority,” Blanc told The Times of Israel. “It really scares me to live in a state and a city that conducts itself this way. We are here to reclaim our city.”
‘For me, Jerusalem Day should focus on the real residents of the city, not on the imagined city that is often celebrated’
A Palestinian friend of Blanc’s — who works at McDonald’s on Ben-Yehuda Street — told her of an incited crowd of teenagers shouting racist slogans and searching for Arabs to target last fall.
“They locked the doors [of the restaurant] from the inside and called the police. Who knows how this might have ended,” Blanc said.
For Eyal, a 41-year-old Jerusalem native, opposing the Jerusalem Day festivities in their current form is also about questioning an Israeli meta-narrative.
“For me, Jerusalem Day should focus on the real residents of the city, not on the imagined city that is often celebrated,” he said. “The real residents include people like me; leftists who grew up here. They also include 40% Palestinians. Let’s talk about the real people and what serves them… Disrespecting the diverse mosaic that is Jerusalem means disrespecting Jerusalem.”
Imagined Jerusalem, he explained, is the myth of a unified city.
“If I were to bring a foreigner to Jerusalem for the first time and asked him to identify West and East Jerusalem, to describe when he’s in the capital of Israel and when he’s somewhere else, it would be very easy for him,” Eyal said.
Breaking away from a discussion group on how to mobilize online ahead of the march, Polizer, the Arabic literature student, seemed wary that his activism could be misconstrued as anti-patriotic.
“Jerusalem Day is a symbol of unity for the Jewish people, just like the city itself. It’s important for our people, which I feel connected to. That’s exactly why it pains me to see the event being violently used against those who don’t celebrate the city’s unification.”
