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<\/a><\/p>\nMinister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir waves the Israeli flag as he tours the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. May 14, 2026. (Photo by Yonatan Sindel\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Journalists, left-wing activists and Arab residents all faced assaults during the march, in what police described as \u201cisolated\u201d clashes that led to the arrest of 13 people.<\/p>\n
The celebratory march has a long history as a forum for violence carried out by far-right extremists often not quelled by police.<\/p>\n
This year, the march followed a dramatic gesture by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir in which he displayed a large Israeli flag atop the Temple Mount and declared the site \u201cin our hands.\u201d Also known as the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the sensitive location is the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam.<\/p>\n
Ben-Gvir was echoing the words of Mordechai (Motta) Gur, commander of the 55th Paratroopers Brigade, after Israeli forces in 1967 entered the Old City and placed it under Jewish control for the first time since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.<\/p>\n
Ben-Gvir\u2019s display of an Israeli flag on the Temple Mount flouted longstanding norms against such displays on the site, in the kind of provocation that caused his critics to deride him as a \u201cpyromaniac\u201d before he became a crucial figure in the government\u2019s ruling coalition three years ago.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Israel Police, which falls under Ben-Gvir\u2019s oversight, said ahead of the march that he anticipated a positive focus for the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main focus of today is heritage and unity,\u201d Daniel Eldunne, the force\u2019s international spokesman, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an interview at the Damascus Gate. \u201cWe have already seen a few isolated incidents of violence, but it\u2019s important to know that this is not what today is about, and it should not overshadow the day\u2019s festivities.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cThere are a few young individuals acting disorderly, but the Israel Police know how to handle them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yom Yerushayim, the national celebration of the reunification of Jerusalem, actually falls on Friday this year so the Flag March was held one day early. The march began at the Great Synagogue and traveled through the Damascus Gate to the Western Wall. Many Arab residents of the Old City chose to close their shops for the day.<\/p>\n
Tensions were already rising by mid-morning, with crowds of religious youth walking through the streets of the Old City. Dancing in circles and hoisting younger demonstrators onto their shoulders, the marchers\u2019 energy was palpable. Many chanted \u201cAm Yisrael Chai\u201d but extremists at times also broke into chants including \u201cDeath to Arabs\u201d and \u201cMay your village burn.\u201d<\/p>\n
A coalition of left-wing Israeli organizations also assembled in the Old City to demonstrate their support for Arab residents and offer a \u201cprotective presence\u201d against the right-wing marchers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are here to show that we will not abandon our neighbors,\u201d said Ori Shaham, a spokesperson for Standing Together, the left-wing Israeli peace group, which brought 200 volunteers in bright purple vests to accompany Arab residents who might be at risk from the marchers.<\/p>\n
In one incident circulated by Standing Together, right-wing demonstrators could be seen throwing chairs at members of the group and the Arab residents they accompanied.<\/p>\n
The group Rabbis for Human Rights said its contingent was assaulted by right-wing extremists who threw water bottles at them while yelling slurs. It posted a video showing police officers repelling its delegation, including Rabbi Jill Jacobs, head of the U.S. group T\u2019ruah, from the Old City.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeanwhile, right-wing Jewish youth were allowed to run riot,\u201d T\u2019ruah said on Instagram.<\/p>\n
Tag Meir, a coalition of left-wing Israeli groups, organized a parallel \u201cMarch of the Flowers,\u201d handing out flowers to Arab residents and shop owners who did choose to open for the day. Tag Meir founder Gadi Gvaryahu told JTA that the flowers are \u201can apology for what is to come later in the day\u201d and a signal of peace.<\/p>\n
In a critique of the right-wing extremists, he said about Jerusalem Arabs: \u201cWe don\u2019t need to show them every year that Jerusalem is our city. Jerusalem is ours. We don\u2019t need to reoccupy it every year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emad Abu Ahmad, who sells dishware in the Old City just a few hundred meters inside Damascus Gate, told JTA that \u201cEach year the activists come with flowers, and look, I already have enough to make a bouquet.\u201d He gestured at his sales counter, filled with pink and blue flowers.<\/p>\n
Many of the left-wing volunteers were older, in contrast to the makeup of the nationalist marchers who tend to be younger yeshiva students. Michal Cohen, who is from Australia and a member of Women Wage Peace, said she had participated in the Flag March herself decades ago. Now, she said, \u201cI was so ashamed and embarrassed. \u2026 What you see on this day, all those young people acting as though it\u2019s OK to diminish the rights of everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
While some participants in the Flag March carried Third Temple flags, signaling support for a messianic movement that seeks to build a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, where Al-Aqsa Mosque now stands, others are political moderates who marched to honor Israeli soldiers who died fighting to capture Jerusalem in 1967.<\/p>\n
That was the case for Yonatan, who joined the march from Kfar Saba and recalled listening to news of the war on the radio. \u201cIt means something to me to see the Israeli flag carried here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gavriel Chaskia, a recent immigrant from Panama, said his motivation for joining was simple and not political. \u201cWe wanted to see the flags at the Kotel, so we drove from Ra\u2019anana to be here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n