The country of Israel observes another annual event, marking Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem, this year held under the shadow of the war in Gaza. There is Israeli police deployed near the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday to maintain law and order in the already tense atmosphere within the country.

What is Jerusalem Day

The Jerusalem Day—or Yom Yerushalayim (as called in Hebrew)—commemorates what Israel considers the reunification of the city by its authority in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Since then, thousands of Israeli nationalists celebrate this day every year, many of whom are also religious Jews. These people march through the streets of Jerusalem and its annexed Old City, including predominantly Arab neighbourhoods. The citizens wave Israeli flags, dance, and sometimes shout inflammatory slogans during the march. Racist slogan chanting and skirmishes are common during the event on the streets. A day before, the crowd unfolded a massive Israeli flag on Sunday in the plaza facing the Western Wall.

The route of the march ends at the Western Wall, which is the last remnant of the Second Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE during the First Jewish-Roman War. This is also one of the most sacred places where Jews are allowed to pray.

Jerusalem Day events begin a day before and are among the most commonly observed Jewish holidays. While the local authorities sometimes compel Palestinian businesses inside the Old City to close down for the march, this, however, is taken as a deliberate provocation by the Palestinians, who claim that the city’s eastern sector is the capital of their future state.

This is the second time the event is being held after the start of the Gaza war.