Jerusalem, April 25: Palestinians clashed with Israeli occupation forces on Sunday near a march being held by Jewish extremists through a neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem.
The fighting took place several hundred metres (yards) away from where the flag-waving marchers made a statement “affirming Jewish sovereignty over the whole city.” There were no reports of serious injuries or arrests.
The march had drawn widespread objections in Israel, including from the mostly rightwing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had sought to prevent it from being held.
It came as the United States has been pressing Israel not to take actions in the city that could undermine efforts to revive the peace process with the Palestinians, which has been suspended since the December 2008 Israeli war on Gaza.
The march took place as US President Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, met Israeli and Palestinian leaders in an effort to restart the stalled talks.
“We have come to say to Obama and to George Mitchell that Jerusalem belongs to the Jewish people and not to the Arabs,” said Itamar Ben Gvir, one of the march’s organisers.
Netanyahu had asked law enforcement authorities to stop the rally taking place but Israel’s Supreme Court allowed it.
Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau, of the hardline Yisrael Beitenu party, said he regretted the event.
“It’s a shame that a provocation of this sort takes place,” he told reporters at the weekly cabinet meeting. “I would rather it didn’t happen.”
Palestinian East Jerusalem has been under illegal Israeli occupation 1967.
—Agencies