Ultra-nationalist Jerusalem Flag March holds up a mirror to Israeli society
Gangs of extremist settler youth gather in front of Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, chanting ‘Death to Arabs’ and ‘May your village burn’ as heavily armed police officers watched on, 15 May 2026
Jared Hillel reports in Mondoweiss on 16 May 2026 :
Before Jerusalem Day festivities even began, a palpable tension could be felt in the streets of the Old City. By late morning, the normally bustling Muslim quarter had fallen silent, with shopkeepers closing up after only a few hours of work.
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Movement to rebuild the third temple
While many of the participants refrained from partaking in physical acts of violence, much of the imagery found at the march signaled support for extremist beliefs of Religious Zionism. Among the sea of Israeli flags, countless participants carried Third Temple flags, a symbol linked to demands that Al-Aqsa Mosque be destroyed and replaced with a Jewish temple.
It’s an ideology that Yishmael Ben Avraham, an ultra-orthodox doing protective presence for the first time in the Old City, faced particular harassment for opposing. “People say that stories about settler violence are just anti-Zionist propaganda, so I wanted to see with my own eyes what was going on,” he told Mondoweiss. “So far, all I have seen is violent settlers and Palestinians on the receiving end.”