JERUSALEM: Dozens of Israeli peace activists gathered on Thursday to show solidarity with Palestinians ahead of annual rallies marking Israel&#39;s capture of East Jerusalem, with the thousands-strong marches known for descending into nationalist anti-Palestinian violence. Jerusalem Day, as the occasion is known, commemorates Israeli forces taking East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Israel considers all of Jerusalem, including the annexed Palestinian-majority east, to be its indivisible capital. The international community, however, does not recognize this. Every year, thousands of Israeli nationalists, many of them religious Jews, march through Jerusalem and its annexed Old City, including in predominantly Palestinian neighborhoods, waving Israeli flags, dancing and sometimes accosting residents. Under the blazing morning sun on Thursday, dozens of Israeli peace activists wearing white T-shirts and carrying colorful flowers descended the stone steps towards the Old City&#39;s Damascus Gate. One elderly woman stood handing out yellow flowers to Palestinians crossing through the gate, while another greeted them with &quot;good morning&quot; in Arabic. Clutching white flowers in his hands, 52-year-old Ilan Perez said he wanted to &quot;show my sympathy and love with flowers&quot;. &quot;It was important for me to come in order to show some solidarity with the local community and say that as a Jew, as a Zionist, as someone who wants a Jewish state here, I want them to be part of it and be part of the nation with equal rights,&quot; said Perez, who works in the tech industry and had come from the city of Raanana, near Tel Aviv. Palestinian shops shuttered&nbsp;Inside the Damascus Gate, a Palestinian man was busily cellotaping a padlock shut on his storefront in anticipation of the violence expected to erupt later in the afternoon. Shops along the march&#39;s route were shuttered, and Israeli police stood stationed behind metal barriers. Authorities sometimes order Palestinian shops in the Old City to shut for the march, which ends at the Western Wall -- the last remnant of the Second Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, the holiest site where Jews are allowed to pray. Near the city&#39;s Via Dolorosa, a handful of activists from the Israeli-Palestinian grassroots movement Standing Together were preparing to perform so-called protective presence, a tactic normally used to deter Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. &quot;This day, thousands of basically settlers and right-wing fascist young and older people will be roaming the streets chanting very racist things, trying to destroy places owned by Palestinians and just terrorizing the whole place,&quot; said Rula Daoud, co-director of Standing Together. &quot;Our presence is to just protect people from being attacked, places from being vandalized. And we try to de-escalate this day. So we are not here to protest,&quot; she said, adding that Standing Together had around 300 activists stationed in the Old City, alongside others from different peace organizations. Daoud said the march was becoming more violent every year, particularly after Hamas&#39;s October 7 attacks on Israel, and accused the police of not intervening to curb the violence. Around midday, a group of dozens of revelers waving large Israeli flags and wearing stickers with the slogan &quot;Israel is forever&quot; streamed through Damascus Gate singing and playing loud music.

Middle East

Israeli peace groups hand flowers to Palestinians near Damascus Gate as shops closed and police deployed ahead of Jerusalem Day marches, often marked by racist chants and violence.

Peace activists gather ahead of Jerusalem Day rallies known for violence

JERUSALEM: Israeli NGOs have raised the alarm over a settlement plan signed by the government which they say would mark the first expansion of Jerusalem&#39;s borders into the <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/israels-west-bank-mega-land-grab-draws-international-outrage" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">occupied West Bank</a> since 1967. Israel has occupied east Jerusalem since 1967 and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community. Palestinians view east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. The proposal, published in early February but reported by Israeli media only on Monday, comes as international outrage mounts over <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/pakistan-condemns-israeli-west-bank-land-seizures-demands-international-action" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">creeping measures</a> aimed at strengthening Israeli control over the West Bank. Critics say these actions by the Israeli authorities are aimed at the de facto annexation of the Palestinian territory. The planned development, announced by Israel&#39;s Ministry of Construction and Housing, is formally a westward expansion of the Geva Binyamin, or Adam, settlement situated north-east of Jerusalem in the West Bank. In a statement, the ministry said the development agreement included the construction of around 2,780 housing units for the settlement, with an investment of roughly 120 million Israeli shekels (around $38.7 million). But the area to be developed lies on the Jerusalem side of the separation barrier built by Israel in the early 2000s, while Geva Binyamin sits on the West Bank side of the barrier, and the two are separated by a road. In a statement, Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said there would be no &quot;territorial or functional connection&quot; between the area to be developed and the settlement. &quot;The new neighborhood will be integral to the city of Jerusalem,&quot; Lior Amihai, Peace Now&#39;s executive director, told AFP. &quot;What is unique about that one is that it will be connected directly to Jerusalem, but it will be beyond the annexed municipal border. So, it will be in complete West Bank territory, but just adjacent to Jerusalem,&quot; he said. &#39;Living there as Jerusalemites&#39; The move comes days after Israel&#39;s government approved a process to register land in the West Bank as &quot;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/israel-approves-west-bank-land-as-state-property-continues-gaza-bombardment-report" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">state property</a>&quot;, drawing widespread international condemnation and fears among critics that it would accelerate annexation of the Palestinian territory. Days earlier, Israel&#39;s security cabinet approved a series of measures to tighten control over areas of the West Bank administered by the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo accords. Those measures, which also sparked international backlash, include allowing Jewish Israelis to buy West Bank land directly and allowing Israeli authorities to administer certain religious sites in areas under the Palestinian Authority&#39;s control. Amihai said that the current government &ndash; one of the most right-wing in Israel&#39;s history &ndash; was &quot;systematically working to annex the occupied territories and to prevent Palestinian statehood&quot;.&nbsp;The case of Jerusalem, he said, was particularly symbolic. &quot;Every change to Jerusalem is sensitive to both the Israeli public, but also to the Palestinians,&quot; he told AFP. Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at Ir Amim, an Israeli NGO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/palestinian-ngo-condemns-israeli-act-of-revenge-after-prisoner-abuse-video" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">focusing</a>&nbsp;on Jerusalem within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said the latest planned development amounted to a de facto expansion of the city of Jerusalem. &quot;If it is built, and people live there, the people who will live there, they will be living there as Jerusalemites,&quot; he told AFP. &quot;In all practical terms, it&#39;s basically not the settlement that will be expanded, but Jerusalem.&quot; &#39;Facts on the ground&#39; The development agreement was signed by Israel&#39;s Construction and Housing Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the Binyamin Regional Council, which represents settlements north of Ramallah in the central West Bank. It has yet to be reviewed by the Civil Administration&#39;s Higher Planning Committee, in a process which could take several months or years. Tatarsky said that international pressure had so far made it difficult for recent Israeli governments to make formal declarations on annexation. &quot;It&#39;s much easier to create facts on the ground, which, altogether... actually add up to annexation,&quot; the researcher said. The West Bank, occupied since 1967, would form the largest part of any future Palestinian state but is seen by many on the religious right as Israeli land. Some 200,000 Israelis live in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, while more than 500,000 others live in West Bank&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/new-israeli-west-bank-measures-draw-palestinian-regional-backlash" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">settlements</a>&nbsp;and outposts, which are illegal under international law. Around three million Palestinians live in the territory. The current Israeli government has fast-tracked settlement expansion, approving a record 52 settlements in 2025.

This picture taken from Umm Safa village, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, shows a Palestinian flag (foreground) and Israeli flag fluttering on a hilltop overlooking the village on February 16, 2026. (AFP)

The proposal, published in early February but reported by Israeli media only on Monday, comes as international outrage mounts over creeping measures aimed at strengthening Israeli control over the West Bank.

Israel accused of move expanding Jerusalem borders for first time since 1967

JERUSALEN: A senior imam of the Al Aqsa Mosque in east Jerusalem said Tuesday that Israeli authorities have barred him from entering the compound, just days before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. &quot;I have been barred from the mosque for a week, and the order can be renewed,&quot; Sheikh Muhammad al Abbasi told AFP. He said he was not informed of the reason for the ban, which came into effect from Monday. &quot;I had only returned to Al Aqsa a month ago after spending a year in the hospital following a serious car accident,&quot; Abbasi said. &quot;This ban is a grave matter for us, as our soul is tied to Al Aqsa. Al Aqsa is our life.&quot; The month of Ramadan, during which Muslims observe a fast from dawn to dusk, is expected to begin this week. During the holy month, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians traditionally attend prayers at Al Aqsa &ndash; Islam&#39;s third holiest site, located in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed. On Monday, Israeli police said they had recommended issuing 10,000 permits for Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, who require special permission to enter Jerusalem. Police did not specify whether age restrictions would apply. The Palestinian Jerusalem Governorate however said it had been informed that permits would again be limited to men over 55 and women over 50, mirroring last year&#39;s criteria. It added that Israeli authorities had prevented the Islamic Waqf &ndash; the Jordanian run body that administers the site &ndash; from carrying out routine preparations, including installing shade structures and setting up temporary medical clinics. A Waqf source said 33 of its employees had been barred from entering the compound in the week leading up to Ramadan. Under long standing arrangements, Jews may visit the Al Aqsa compound &ndash; &nbsp;which they revere as the site of the first and second Jewish temples &ndash; but they are not permitted to pray there. Israel says it is committed to upholding this status quo, though Palestinians fear it is being eroded. In recent years, a growing number of Jewish ultranationalists have challenged the prayer ban, including far right politician Itamar Ben Gvir, who prayed at the site while serving as national security minister in 2024 and 2025.

Muslim worshippers walk next to the Dome of the Rock mosque at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City on October 17, 2025. (AFP)

On Monday, Israeli police said they had recommended issuing 10,000 permits for Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, who require special permission to enter Jerusalem.

Al-Aqsa imam says Israel barring him from entering mosque ahead of Ramadan

JERUSALEM: The United Nations&#39; agency for Palestinian refugees said Sunday that its partially <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/israel-begins-demolitions-at-unrwa-headquarters-in-east-jerusalem" style="color:#0073e6;">demolished</a> headquarters in east Jerusalem was set on fire. The agency, <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/pakistan-muslim-world-urge-sustained-unrwa-support-amid-gaza-crisis" style="color:#0073e6;">UNRWA</a>, did not offer details on the cause of the incident at their premises, which Israeli authorities seized and began dismantling last week after banning the organization from operating in the country in 2025. &quot;After having been stormed and demolished by the Israeli authorities, the UNRWA Headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem has now been set on fire,&quot; the agency said in a statement. It described the blaze as part of an &quot;ongoing attempt to dismantle the status of Palestine Refugees.&quot; The fire and rescue service said early Sunday that it had responded to a call at the facility, where it was working to &quot;extinguish the blaze and prevent it from spreading,&quot; also without offering a cause. The UN had slammed last week&#39;s seizure and demolitions, and UNRWA insisted that its property remained protected by the privileges and immunities of the UN, a view it repeated on Sunday. &quot;Like any UN Member State anywhere in the world, without exception, Israel is legally obliged to protect and respect UN facilities,&quot; UNRWA spokesperson Jonathan Fowler told AFP on Sunday. UNRWA was created specifically for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced during the creation of Israel in 1948, and provides refugee status registration and health and education services. Its compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem has been empty of staff since January 2025, when the law banning its operations took effect. Israel accuses UNRWA of providing cover for Hamas fighters, and a series of investigations found &quot;neutrality-related issues&quot; at the agency but held that Israel had not provided conclusive evidence. UNRWA still operates in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

The agency describes blaze as part of an "ongoing attempt to dismantle the status of Palestine Refugees"; fire and rescue service say it responded to a call at the facility, where it was working to "extinguish the blaze and prevent it from spreading," also without offering a cause.

Articles tagged with "Jerusalem"

Peace activists gather ahead of Jerusalem Day rallies known for violence

Israel accused of move expanding Jerusalem borders for first time since 1967

Al-Aqsa imam says Israel barring him from entering mosque ahead of Ramadan

UN Palestinian refugee agency says demolished HQ set on fire