Jewish Nationalists March in East Jerusalem

Flag-waving Jewish nationalists, chanting “The nation of Israel lives,” marched under police guard through Arab East Jerusalem on Thursday to reaffirm their claim to sovereignty over Israel’s disputed capital.

Palestinians stared blankly at the march marking the 22nd anniversary of Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem. The same war gave it control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip, scene of the 17-month-old Arab uprising.

Riot police armed with tear gas and rubber bullets accompanied marchers to prevent clashes between Arabs and Jews, who said their Israeli flags were a symbol of pride and power.

“I am walking for the honor of my flag--the blue and white. I love it,” said Michael Perry, who fought in 1967 and lost friends in the battle with Arab armies for Jerusalem.

“We have been attacked over and over, and each time the flag has been victorious,” said Gershon Solomon, head of the Temple Mount Faithful group that organized one march.

“And in this struggle too, it will win,” he told marchers, criticizing what he called the government’s weakness in the face of Arab threats.

Placards proclaimed that Jerusalem would never again be divided, and there was a ceremonial cutting of the “green line” symbolizing the border that split the city between Jordan and Israel from 1948 to 1967.

But some marchers lamented that Jerusalem is still not united.

“Arabs have tried to attack me since 1929,” Eliahu Carmel, 72, said as he checked the ammunition in his pistol.

“If it is impossible to walk in the (walled) Old City with Israeli flags, the city is not united. If the government cannot guarantee the safety of Jews in the Old City, Jerusalem is not united,” he said.

A Palestinian restaurant owner, speaking after a group passed waving Israeli flags, said:

“This is a political act. If the government did not want them here, it would stop them. But as you see, they are here.”