Clashes flared throughout the day as left-wing Israeli activists intervened to escort Palestinians away from young far-right Israeli Jews threatening passersby, witnesses said.
Journalists covering the rally were repeatedly harassed and in some instances assaulted, the Reuters witness said.
Earlier, Ben Gvir visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the walled Old City, known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Arabs as the Noble Sanctuary — the third holiest site in Islam.
Ben Gvir said in a video filmed at the elevated compound that the site was being flooded by Jews. “Today, thank God, it is already possible to pray on the Temple Mount,” he said.
Under a decades-old arrangement, the compound is administered by a Jordanian Islamic trust. Jews, who regard the compound as the site of two ancient temples, are allowed to visit but not pray there.
Ben Gvir, whose visit was condemned by the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, has along with others on the far right in Israel long pushed for Jewish prayer rights at the site.
This year’s Flag March again coincided with the war in Gaza, now in its 20th month, and escalating Israeli military operations against Palestinian militants in the West Bank, where settler attacks targeting Palestinian residents have been on the rise.
The march frequently stokes tension as ultranationalist Jews stream into Palestinian areas of Jerusalem‘s walled Old City en-route to the Western Wall, one of Judaism’s most sacred sites, which abuts the mosque compound.
The 2021 rally led to a brief war between Israel and Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas. The current war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’ October 2023 attack on southern Israeli communities.
Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the Old City, from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state that would include the West Bank and Gaza.
Most countries consider East Jerusalem to be occupied territory and do not recognize Israeli sovereignty over it. Israel deems Jerusalem as its eternal, indivisible capital.
In 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump recognized all of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv. On Sunday, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, congratulated Israel on what he called the reunification of the city 58 years ago.
Naomi Hirschler, 39, an Israeli hairdresser from Jerusalem, walking past shuttered Palestinian-owned stores in the Old City, said she attends the rally every year.
“It’s something you can’t explain. You feel it. It’s happiness from inside,” she said, adding that she was “very happy that we have Jerusalem for us.”
