BICOM

An estimated 30,000 people took part in the traditional Jerusalem Day march yesterday through Jerusalem’s Old City to the Western Wall to mark the city’s unification in 1967.

The day’s central event, a march from the Old City’s Damascus Gate through the Muslim Quarter and on to the Western Wall, has previously been marred by vandalism and inflammatory language. Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that two thousand officers were on duty to combat such incidents, and that “over 30,000 people took part in the march to the Western Wall via Damascus Gate and Jaffa Gate, no incidents were reported”.

Speaking at a ceremony at Ammunition Hill, the site of a key and bloody battle in 1967, Netanyahu said “the idea of a divided, split, wounded city is one we will never return to”. He later reiterated that “Israel wants peace. I want peace. I want to renew the diplomatic process to achieve peace”. However, alluding to the Palestinians, Netanyahu contended that “those who deny that Israel is the homeland of the Jews, who deny our claims to Jerusalem… have a long way to go before they are ready for peace”.

President Reuven Rivlin also spoke, noting that Jewish and Arab communities live largely separate lives in Jerusalem. He said: “We must remember that Jerusalem is a microcosm of Israeli society as a whole, and the task of bringing together all its communities and tribes is a national mission.”

Rivlin added: “We are not doomed to live together, but we are destined to live together.”

During the Six Day War of 1967, Israeli troops defeated Jordanian forces, capturing East Jerusalem, including the Old City, turning Jerusalem into a single, unified city for the first time since 1948. In the interim period, under Jordanian rule, Jews had been barred from visiting holy sites in the Old City. Jerusalem Day marks the anniversary of Israel’s victory.