The march, which was held under heavy security and whose participants waved flags and passed through Palestinian-populated areas such as Damascus Gate and the Muslim Quarter, is the main event on Jerusalem Day, when Israel celebrates its annexation of the eastern part of the city.
Groups of Jewish youths participating in the march confronted the Palestinians and beat them, chanting “Death to the Arabs” and waving racist banners.
Before the start of the Israeli “flag march”, many Palestinian shopkeepers closed their shops for fear of harassment.
“The United States categorically rejects racist language in any form. We condemn hateful chants such as death to Arabs,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Twitter.
Palestinian and foreign journalists said that the participants in the march threw sticks, stones and bottles at them, injuring some.
The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wiensland, expressed his annoyance at the “inflammatory and racist chants” chanted by some of the participants in the march and denounced the attacks on journalists.
-On Friday, videos on social media showed quarrels and stone throwing between Palestinians and Jewish youths, after clashes that lasted for a short time in the narrow alleys of the Old City.
-The Jerusalem Day celebrations have become a recent show of force by Jewish nationalists, which Palestinians say is a provocation aimed at undermining their ties to the city.
The celebration of Jerusalem Day in 2021 sparked an 11-day war against Hamas in Gaza.
Decades ago, Israel announced the annexation of East Jerusalem, in a move that was not recognized internationally.
Israel considers the entire city its eternal and indivisible capital.
The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, which includes the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
