Jerusalem, May 11: Israel today starts celebrating the anniversary of what it calls Jerusalem’s unification , its 1967 conquest of the city’s Arab sector which has since become a major hurdle in peace efforts.
The sunset-to-sunset Jerusalem Day celebrations kick off with an open-air concert by US funk band Kool and the Gang and feature a ceremony at Ammunition Hill, the site of one of Israel’s fiercest battles with Jordanian forces.
Thousands of people, mostly nationalist-religious Jews are expected to take part tomorrow in an annual march through Jerusalem that concludes at the Old City’s Wailing Wall, one of the most holiest sites in Judaism
Israel marks the event in accordance with the Hebrew calendar.
It captured Arab east Jerusalem on June 7, 1967, the third day of the Six Day War and unilaterally annexed the sector in a move not recognised by the international community.
–Agencies