JERUSALEM ( Associated Press) — Israeli police this week arrested dozens but not any Jewish during a nationalist march through Jerusalem in which Jewish mobs raised racist slogans, attacked Palestinians and Palestinian property. broke, an Israeli newspaper reported on Thursday.
Israeli police said after Sunday’s march that more than 60 people had been arrested, but declined to give a breakdown, despite questions from the Associated Press. The Haaretz daily reported Thursday that it checked arrest records by name, and found that none of those detained were Jewish. It said two Jews were arrested in a separate, related incident.
tens of thousands Israeli nationalists take part in the Sunday parade – an annual march that celebrates Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. The Palestinians consider the incident to be inciting.
Israeli police cleared the area for marchers who passed through a Palestinian neighborhood before heading to the Jewish quarter of the old city to pray at the Western Wall.
Large crowds, many of them young Orthodox Jews carrying Israeli flags, gathered at the entrance to the Old City’s Muslim Quarter, chanting and dancing slogans such as “Death to the Arabs” before continuing on their way. Inside the old city, marchers stormed the gates of Palestinian businesses and scuffled with angry Palestinian residents. Videos captured on social media showed marchers spitting, thrashing and pepper spraying Palestinians and journalists.
Fighting broke out along the way, as the police intervened mainly to protect the Jews and to forcibly disperse the Palestinians.
According to the Haaretz report, almost all of those arrested on Thursday were Palestinian. It said two Jewish suspects were arrested after a parade beating a Palestinian journalist during unrest outside the Old City. The newspaper compiled the data in the days following the parade, scouring court records.
Israeli police did not respond to a request for comment. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said only a small minority Flag marchers held the blame for the bad behavior and vowed to prosecute the law breaker.
Several other journalists were physically assaulted while covering the march, according to the Foreign Press Association, which represents international media outlets operating in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
It said Israeli participants verbally and physically assaulted a BBC team and a reporter from France 24. It said that Quik Kirszenbaum, a freelance photographer and producer covering the march for foreign media, was pepper sprayed by an Israeli participant and punched in the face by an Israeli border police officer.
“It is unacceptable for a police officer to attack a clearly identified photojournalist who was wearing a wristband distributed to police to identify the accredited journalists in the incident,” it said.
The association called on the police to take action against the officers and Israelis who attacked the journalists.
It added, “Those who attack journalists should be arrested, not protected by the police.” “Unfortunately, such violence against journalists has become routine. We expect Israeli officials – who claim to respect freedom of the press – to put their words into action. ,
Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem have long complained of the double standard in which Palestinian mobs are often arrested and violently dispersed by police with clubs, tear gas and rubber bullets, while Jewish settlers Attacks and vandalism are often accompanied by virtual punishment. Israeli police denied such allegations, saying they were merely enforcing the law.
The Old City is part of East Jerusalem, which Israel added in a move not recognized internationally and considers part of its capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state.
Human rights groups say discriminatory treatment Palestinians in East Jerusalem are part of a wider system of numbers that equates to apartheid, Israel vehemently rejects that label as an attack on its legitimacy rooted in anti-Semitic sentiment.
In the 1967 Middle East war, Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Palestinians seek all three regions for a future independent state. The last round of real peace talks broke down a decade ago.
