Alwaght- While in recent months protests at the far-right government's push with judiciary overhaul have engulfed the Israeli streets and the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserts that the parties should concentrate on settling the home crises, hardline ministers, turning a deaf ear to the warnings, are seeking to open a new front abroad. In this regard, hundreds of settlers on Friday night held the provocative flag march in the occupied Al-Quds (Jerusalem).
The second in three months, the march was organized amid tight security measures in the routes and streets leading to Al-Quds, and the participants entered Damascus Gate in the Old City. The march is part of an unceasing effort by the Israeli regime for provocations on the anniversary of the destruction of the so-called Jewish temple.
On the other hand, hundreds of settlers on Thursday stormed the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque. Accompanying the stormers, the Israeli National Security Minister Itmar Ben-Gvir said: “This place is the most important place we need to restore and extend our sovereignty over.”
During the event, the Israelis made racist chants like “death to Arabs” and “let their village to be torched.”
In provocations to the Palestinians and Muslims and under the policy to Judaize Al-Quds, the settlers continue to encroach on Islamic holy places and by changing the characteristics and historical and cultural identity of the holy mosque, they push for hijacking and Judaizing the holy places.
For a majority of the Zionists , the flag march is part of their narrative for formation of their fake state. But protesters argue that the event is hijacked by hardliners of the cabinet who claim that this action grants further legitimacy to the Israeli government and future.
Palestinian groups’ reaction
Having always considered the march of flag provocative and warned about its consequences, Palestinians this time, too, expressed their readiness to counter the occupiers.
Meanwhile, a number of Palestinian men and women gathered inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque along with the Israeli storming of the holy place and chanted “God is great” in response to the settlers. Also, there were calls for massive demonstrations in the West Bank and other occupied territories to counter the Israeli march.
Palestinian groups in Al-Quds in a statement said: "Today we have a new challenge, the settlers will attack the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the anniversary of the destruction of their temple, O children of our people, let's get up again and march towards the Al-Aqsa Mosque." The Palestinian groups called on the Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic nations to “rise against massive aggression of the Israeli regime to Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Hazem Qassem, the spokesman to Hamas, said: “The massive, ongoing violations by the settlers and ministers in the occupation government risk intensification of the dangerous religious war made by the occupation of Al-Quds and the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque. These assaults are provocations to the feel gs of our nation, Arab nations, Islamic nations, and the free people of the world and a humiliation of the official and popular Arab systems.”
Tareq Selmi, the spokesman to the Islamic Jihad, in reaction to the storming of the holy mosque urged the Palestinian youths to engage in fighting with the Israelis at the hot spots.
Also, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine announced that what is happening in the Al-Aqsa Mosque is an important part of the aggressive encroachment of the Israelis on the holy places under the effort to continue the temporal and spatial division of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It asked the Palestinian people to go to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday to prevent the encroachment of the settlers on Al-Aqsa and its squares, and to unite to defend the Arab identity of the city and to thwart the Israeli plots targeting the holy places.
Minister of Al-Quds Affairs at the Palestinian Authority Fadi al-Hadmi in reaction to the Israeli violations said that by violating the historical and legal status of Al-Aqsa Mosque and calling for desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque by performing religious rituals, the far-right groups are seeking to create a religious conflict.
On the other hand, Hamas military arm Ezzeddin Qassam Brigades on Thursday in a statement said that in reaction to the Israeli moves in Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa they fired Qassam 1 rocket into Ramon settlement near Jenin.
Palestinian resistance groups have always warned that Al-Aqsa Mosque is their red line and any assault on it will be met with a strong response, and an example of that was the battle of "Sword of Al-Quds" in May 2021, when Hamas fired more than 4,000 rockets at the occupied territories in 11 days, finally forcing the Israeli occupation to give up and acquiesce to a ceasefire.
The flag march, an opportunity for covering up the internal crisis
The flag march of the settlers, led by Ben-Gvir, is linked to the internal Israeli developments in the present circumstances. The cabinet hardliners, facing substantial home and foreign opposition, are resorting to tensions with the Palestinian groups to distract public from the internal crises and also free themselves from the pressures. Having in mind that all Israelis are somehow united against the Palestinians, any new clashes or full-scale war in the West Bank will allow Netanyahu and his cabal to get rid of the protests and form a joint front with the opposition to deal with the common threat.
Furthermore, with this provocative action, the hardliners are trying to unify and coordinate the army forces that have disobeyed the cabinet's orders in recent months. Because the collapse of the body of the army is extremely alarming to the Israeli security regime, and in recent weeks, senior officials in Tel Aviv have warned about this issue. In the absence of a strong military, the extremists cannot pursue their ambitious schemes.
Another goal encouraging the hardliners to seek tensions with the Palestinians is the support of the settlers who over the past seven months have proven that they back radical plans of Ben-Gvir. Being the forefront of the clashes with the Palestinians, the settlers advocate the cabinet plans like settlement expansion and civilian arming, and just contrary to other Israelis, they support the judiciary reforms of Netanyahu.
Like Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir, settlers claim that all Palestinians should be expelled from their lands and a purely Jewish state be formed, and these shared beliefs are pushing the far-right to further tensions with the resistance groups.
Though Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir are pressing to realize Judaization of the West Bank, resistance groups will not allow such project to go ahead, and have warned that if the enemy makes a mistake, the will rain down rockets on the whole occupied territories. According to the Islamic Jihad head Ziyad Al-Nakhalah, this time the Palestinian resistance and Lebanese Hezbollah will stand together and this can be costly to the crisis-stricken Tel Aviv that is incapable of fighting a multi-fronted war.
