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Israeli Nationalists Chant Racist Slogans in Jerusalem March

Israelis wave the national flag on the eve of the 'flag march' to mark Jerusalem Day, which commemorates the unification of the city Menahem KAHANA AFP
Israelis wave the national flag on the eve of the 'flag march' to mark Jerusalem Day, which commemorates the unification of the city Menahem KAHANA AFP
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Israeli Nationalists Chant Racist Slogans in Jerusalem March

Israelis wave the national flag on the eve of the 'flag march' to mark Jerusalem Day, which commemorates the unification of the city Menahem KAHANA AFP
Israelis wave the national flag on the eve of the 'flag march' to mark Jerusalem Day, which commemorates the unification of the city Menahem KAHANA AFP

Thousands of Israeli nationalists, some of them chanting "Death to Arabs," paraded through the heart of the main Palestinian thoroughfare in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday, in a show of force that risked setting off a new wave of violence in the tense city.

The crowds, who were overwhelmingly young Orthodox Jewish men, were celebrating Jerusalem Day -- an Israeli holiday that marks the capture of the Old City in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians see the event, which passes through the heart of the Muslim Quarter, as a provocation. Last year, the parade helped trigger an 11-day war with Gaza militants, and this year's march drew condemnations from the Palestinians and neighboring Jordan.

Israel said it deployed thousands of police and security forces for the event, and violent scuffles between Jewish and Palestinian groups erupted inside the Old City before the parade began.

As the march got underway, groups of Orthodox Jewish youths gathered outside Damascus Gate, waving flags, singing religious and nationalistic songs, and shouting "the Jewish nation lives" before entering the Muslim Quarter. One large group chanted "Death to Arabs," and "Let your village burn down" before descending into the Old City.

Police cleared Palestinians out of the area, which is normally a bustling Palestinian thoroughfare. At one point, a drone flying a Palestinian flag flew overhead before police intercepted it.

Ahead of the march, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that "flying the flag of Israel in the capital of Israel is an obvious thing," but also urged participants to celebrate in a "responsible and respectful manner."

Bennett later issued a statement instructing police to show "no tolerance" toward the racist groups. He described them as a "minority that came to set the area on fire" and vowed to prosecute violent extremists - a step that few Israeli governments have taken in the past. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called the racist groups "a disgrace."

Thousands of people normally take part in the march through the Muslim Quarter, including some who shout out nationalistic or racist slogans toward the Palestinians, before making their way to the Western Wall in the Jewish Quarter on the other side of the Old City.

Last year, after weeks of Israeli-Palestinian unrest in Jerusalem, authorities changed the route of the march at the last minute to avoid the Muslim Quarter. But it was too late by then, and Hamas fighters in Gaza fired a barrage of rockets toward Jerusalem as the procession was getting underway. That set off 11 days of heavy fighting.

Sunday’s march came at a time of heightened tensions. Israeli police have repeatedly confronted stone-throwing Palestinian demonstrators in the disputed compound in recent months, often firing rubber bullets and stun grenades.

At the same time, some 19 Israelis have been killed by Palestinian attackers in Israel and the occupied West Bank in recent weeks, while over 35 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank. Some were armed, while others were shot while allegedly throwing stones or firebombs at troops. But several appear appear to have been uninvolved in any violence, including Shireen Abu Akleh, a well-known correspondent for the Al Jazeera satellite channel.

Jerusalem police were criticized internationally for beating mourners at Abu Akleh’s funeral two weeks ago.

Despite the recent unrest, Israeli leaders decided to allow this year's parade to take place along its traditional route through the Muslim Quarter. Ahead the march, there were small scuffles between Israeli nationalists and Palestinians, who threw chairs and bottles and shouted "God is great" at the marchers. Some marchers sprayed pepper spray at Palestinians and journalists. In one video shared on social media, a young Jewish man kicked and sprayed an older Palestinian woman in the face, sending her crumbling to the ground.

Police also fired rubber-tipped bullets and used clubs and pepper spray to disperse Palestinian protesters from the area. The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said 15 people were injured by Israeli police, including four who needed hospitalization.

Ahead of the march, over 2,500 Jews visited Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site inside the Old City, as Palestinians barricaded inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque threw rocks and fireworks.

Al-Aqsa is situated on a hilltop compound revered by Muslims and Jews. The mosque is the third-holiest site in Islam, and the Palestinians are fiercely protective over what they consider to be a potent symbol of their national aspirations.

The compound also is the holiest site for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount and revere it as the home of the biblical Temples. The competing claims to the site lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and have triggered numerous rounds of violence.

Police also said one of the Jewish groups "violated visitation rules" and was removed. Israeli media said the group had unfurled Israeli flags in the compound.

Under longstanding arrangements known as the "status quo," Jews are allowed to visit the compound but not pray. In recent years, however, the number of Jewish visitors has grown significantly, including some who have been spotted quietly praying.

Such scenes have sparked Palestinian fears that Israel is plotting to take over or divide the area. Israel denies such claims, saying it remains committed to the status quo.

Among the visitors was Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of a small ultranationalist opposition party and a follower of the late racist rabbi, Meir Kahane, who entered with dozens of supporters under heavy police guard.

Palestinians shouted "God is great" as Ben-Gvir, accompanied by Israeli police, shouted "the Jewish people live." Police said they locked the gates of the mosque and said they made 18 arrests.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, accused Israel of "playing with fire irresponsibly and recklessly."

Jordan condemned Ben-Gvir’s visit to the site and warned that the "provocative and escalating march" could make things deteriorate further. Jordan controlled east Jerusalem until Israel captured it in 1967 and it remains the custodian over Muslim holy sites.

Israel captured east Jerusalem, including the Old City, in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem in a move that isn’t internationally recognized and claims all of the city as its capital. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

Gaza’s Hamas rulers praised what they called "the great heroism" shown by Palestinians at Al-Aqsa earlier Sunday. "The Islamic Palestinian Arab identity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque will be protected by our people and their valiant resistance with all their might," said Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the movement.

The movement, however, may be wary of getting involved in another round of fighting. Gaza was hard hit in last year’s war, and the territory is still struggling to repair the damage. In addition, some 12,000 Gazan laborers are now permitted to work inside Israel as part of efforts to maintain calm between the enemies. Renewed fighting could risk losing those jobs, which have given a small boost to Gaza’s devastated economy.

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Arab World

Mohammad Mahdi Shamseddine to Shiites: Integrate Into Your States

Sheikh Mohammad Mahdi Shamseddine during an event with Amal Movement military commander Akel Hamiyeh (Getty). 
Sheikh Mohammad Mahdi Shamseddine during an event with Amal Movement military commander Akel Hamiyeh (Getty). 
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Mohammad Mahdi Shamseddine to Shiites: Integrate Into Your States

Sheikh Mohammad Mahdi Shamseddine during an event with Amal Movement military commander Akel Hamiyeh (Getty). 
Sheikh Mohammad Mahdi Shamseddine during an event with Amal Movement military commander Akel Hamiyeh (Getty). 

Asharq Al-Awsat begins publishing an extended text in the form of a dialogue held in 1997 between the late Sheikh Mohammad Mahdi Shamseddine, then head of Lebanon’s Higher Islamic Shiite Council, and figures close to Hezbollah’s milieu.

The text is of exceptional importance, as it addresses the situation of Shiites in their countries and the need for them to integrate into their states rather than become part of a project subordinate to Iran.

As is well known, Shamseddine was marginalized for many years by supporters of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement. He was displaced from Haret Hreik in Beirut’s southern suburbs and lived outside it because of positions that conflicted with those of Iran-aligned forces in Lebanon.

The dialogue is scheduled to be published by Ibrahim Mohammad Mahdi Shamseddine, the cleric’s son, in a book titled Lebanese Shiites and Arab Shiites: The Relationship with Others and the Relationship with the Self. Asharq Al-Awsat is publishing lengthy excerpts from the text on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Lebanese Shiite cleric’s death, which falls today, Saturday, January 10.

Ibrahim Shamseddine: Why now?

Ibrahim Shamseddine introduces the publication with a preface explaining why he chose to reveal the contents of the dialogue after all these years. He writes that he decided to publish the text marking 25 years since his father’s passing in order to honor him, revive his thought, and recall his deep insight, courage and firmness in expressing what he believed to be the truth — truth that safeguards people and preserves the nation and the state for all.

Central to this vision, he notes, was placing the unity of the national political community above any particularism, without exception, including that of Lebanese Shiites and Arab Shiites, who are part of the broader national, Arab and Islamic collectives.

The text is the outcome of a dialogue session, preserved on audio recordings, lasting more than four hours on the night of Tuesday, March 18, 1997. It brought together Sheikh Shamseddine and a large group of cadres from the “Islamic movement” in Lebanon, closely linked to the party-based Shiite political current that emerged in the mid-1980s under direct and sustained Iranian sponsorship.

Ibrahim Shamseddine explains that he was especially motivated to publish this previously unpublished text because it addresses highly sensitive and contentious issues — particularly relations between Lebanese Shiites and their fellow citizens, their national framework, their Arab and Islamic surroundings, and, most notably, their relationship with Iran.

He adds that these same issues remain at the heart of today’s debates, charged with urgency and tension, and continue to interact with shifting regional and global geopolitical dynamics. For this reason, he argues that the document is not a relic of the past but a living text that speaks directly to a volatile and uncertain present. The full text, with an expanded summary, will later be published in the aforementioned book.

Lebanese Shiites and Arab Shiites

The dialogue opens with a question from one of the young participants, who tells Shamseddine that he had long been regarded as a leading figure of the Islamist movement, but that over time a distance had emerged between him and part of its base. The questioner suggests this may be due to Shamseddine’s position and proximity to official authority, and asks whether he now speaks in the name of state necessities or the choices of the people.

Shamseddine replies that he remains in his original position, unchanged “by even a hair’s breadth,” but rather deeper, broader and more mature. What some perceive as distance, he insists, did not originate from him but from certain clerics and those influenced by them, driven by a purely partisan spirit he describes as almost idolatrous. Barriers were erected, through suspicion or inducement, leaving him personally surprised by developments he had not planned.

He speaks of hidden maneuvering rooted in the pursuit of status and influence, noting that such dynamics have existed within Shiism since the era of the infallible imams. He recounts how the Lebanese Union of Muslim Students, which he helped establish and nurture, was later taken out of his hands, eventually aligning with partisan currents that later fed into Hezbollah. He stresses that many were innocent or misled, while responsibility for others he leaves to divine judgment.

Shamseddine affirms that assuming the presidency of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council did not alter his religious understanding or commitments formed since the 1950s. He reiterates his well-known formulation distinguishing between “the necessities of regimes and the choices of Al-Umma (the community),” stressing that the council has always expressed the latter. Disagreement over whether a given stance falls under necessity or choice, he says, is legitimate.

He laments deliberate distortions portraying him and the council as aligned with the state, exploiting Shiite sensitivities toward authority. While a few acted knowingly, he says the majority were misled. He declares that he harbors no personal grievance, leaving judgment to God.

The relationship with regimes

Responding to a question about the cordiality shown during his visits to Arab states and whether it served the interest of avoiding escalation, Shamseddine dismisses the premise. Affection, he says, is natural and mutual among Muslims, whether in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, India or Pakistan. He notes that during his visits he met governments and oppositions alike, including Islamist groups critical of their own states.

He rejects the suggestion that cordiality implies submission, stressing that shared causes, above all the broader Islamic cause and opposition to the Zionist project, create common ground and understanding.

Shamseddine then addresses what he calls a deep-seated Shiite psychological complex: the belief of being universally rejected. While acknowledging that Shiites do face hostility at times, he argues that the deeper problem is self-isolation rooted in a siege mentality cultivated through poor social and political upbringing. This mindset, he says, has been cynically exploited by some Shiite leaders, particularly after the rise of Islamist movements, to mobilize followers without ethical restraint.

He adds that conflict is not unique to Shiites. Sunnis fight Sunnis in Algeria, Sudan and Afghanistan, just as Shiites have fought Shiites in Iraq and Lebanon. Social struggle, he says, is a universal reality.

“Integrate into your states”

Shamseddine then lays out his central message. His overriding concern, he says, is for the blood, dignity, freedom and honor of Shiites. To protect these, Shiites must be accepted within their homelands and not perceived as a threat or contagion.

“I say this openly,” he declares. “Integrate into your states. Integrate into your societies. Integrate into your systems of shared interests. Do not create a separate system of interests. Do not arouse suspicion. Respect your laws.”

He insists this position is grounded in firm religious conviction, stressing that stealing public funds is forbidden regardless of whether a state is Sunni or Shiite. He argues that acceptance should come from being a constructive citizen, not from acting as a proxy or protected extension of another state.

Shamseddine warns against behavior that seeks to intimidate others through transnational partisan threats, recounting instances where individuals exploited partisan affiliations to evade accountability abroad. Such conduct, he says, ultimately harms the broader Shiite community.

He concludes that his mission is to make Shiites accepted within their societies and the wider Islamic world, accepted as they are, in their religious practices and traditions. Portraying Shiites as a distinct, abnormal case within Islam, he argues, is both false and dangerous. He says that his religious and intellectual duty is to pull Shiites out of this predicament, a task he believes he had already achieved to a significant extent.

Below are some of the key issues addressed by Shamseddine in the dialogue, revealed for the first time:

• When you do not threaten others’ system of interests with your own, few people will stand in your way.

• I say: integrate into your states, integrate into your societies, integrate into your systems of interests. Do not create a separate system of interests. Do not arouse the suspicions of others. Respect your laws.

• My message is to make Shiites acceptable within their societies and within the wider Muslim community. I want them to be accepted in their own right, not because they represent a “protectorate” of another state, meaning to be accepted because Iran protects me.

• The secret group that was formed in Egypt as the nucleus of a party or grouping, including that wretched creature “Shehata” and others like him, does not concern us, whether they are sincere or charlatans.

• The psychological complex among Shiites, that they are ostracized, stems from the fact that they themselves ostracize others. The world is not against us. We are against the world. One of the tasks of my mission is to remove Shiites from a posture of being against the world.

• If Iran is building a party for itself in Egypt and wants to build work upon it, that is not my business. Iran manages its own affairs.

• Shiites make up one-fifth of Muslims compared with four-fifths. My role is to create a state of friendship between them and their societies, far from any political sectarianism.

• I am not speaking only about Arab Shiites. Shiites in Türkiye or Azerbaijan belong to Türkiye and Azerbaijan, not to Iran. Shiites in the Indian subcontinent belong to their homelands, ethnicities and peoples. Iran represents neither a political nor a religious authority for them.

• It is impermissible for there to be a separate project for Shiites within their homelands.

• What interest do Shiites have in killing the emir of Kuwait? Why do we conspire against this or that regime or official? Managing Shiite affairs begins with integration.

• I moved into besieged Beirut in 1982 and said: Shiites will not leave Beirut. Their glory and dignity lie in being besieged alongside Sunnis and Palestinians inside it.

• Shiites are not in danger. If there is any danger to them, it comes from themselves, not from others.

• Had I wanted to flatter the Iranians, I would have mentioned them, praised and lauded them, and you would then have heard applause from Iran and Hezbollah.

• The state cannot deal with secret systems of interests, as some are trying to create here or elsewhere.

• Shiites have no interest, regionally or nationally, in establishing a separate system of interests and linking it to Iran.

• Shiite strength lies in integrating into the body of Islam, not in becoming a special community affiliated with Iranians.

• I call for citizenship without deceit. If one of the turbaned pretenders issues a fatwa saying that stealing the property of a Sunni or a Christian is permissible, absolutely not. This is forbidden.

• The concept of an unjust system or an unjust ruler no longer exists. The modern state has legitimate ownership. We issue religious rulings forbidding the embezzlement of public funds, the betrayal of laws and the undermining of public order.

 

 

Arab World

Video Shows Masked, Armed Men Beating a Palestinian in the Occupied West Bank

01 January 2026, Palestinian Territories, Nablus: Israeli forces raid shops in the central market and opened fire toward a residential building, detaining several Palestinians in the Old City of Nablus in the West Bank. (dpa)
01 January 2026, Palestinian Territories, Nablus: Israeli forces raid shops in the central market and opened fire toward a residential building, detaining several Palestinians in the Old City of Nablus in the West Bank. (dpa)
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Video Shows Masked, Armed Men Beating a Palestinian in the Occupied West Bank

01 January 2026, Palestinian Territories, Nablus: Israeli forces raid shops in the central market and opened fire toward a residential building, detaining several Palestinians in the Old City of Nablus in the West Bank. (dpa)
01 January 2026, Palestinian Territories, Nablus: Israeli forces raid shops in the central market and opened fire toward a residential building, detaining several Palestinians in the Old City of Nablus in the West Bank. (dpa)

Dozens of masked men armed with sticks attacked a plant nursery and beat and injured a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, according to people who saw the attack and video footage obtained by The Associated Press.

Video filmed by security cameras shows men dressed mostly in black, faces covered, with several hitting and kicking a man on the ground.

Two people who witnessed the attack and are members of the family that own the facility said Israeli settlers beat 67-year-old Basim Saleh Yassin as he was trying to flee the nursery located in the northern West Bank village of Deir Sharaf. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

They said Yassin is in the hospital and has broken bones in his hand and other injuries on his face, chest and back. Four cars were burned and destroyed at the nursery.

The attack is the latest in rising settler violence in the West Bank. Settler attacks ramped up during the Palestinian olive harvest season in October and early November and have continued since.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the perpetrators “a handful of extremists” and urged law enforcement to pursue them for “the attempt to take the law into their own hands.” But rights groups and Palestinians say the problem is far greater than a few bad apples, and attacks have become a daily phenomenon across the territory.

Israel's army said that it dispatched soldiers to the Shavei Shomron junction — close to the area of the attack — following reports of dozens of masked Israelis vandalizing property. The army said it apprehended three suspects who were transferred to the police station for questioning. It said security forces condemn violence of any kind.

According to one of the family members that owns the German-Palestinian run nursery, it was the third time in a year that the facility was attacked.

The previous incident was in September and cost the business more than $600,000 as offices and facilities were damaged, he said.

When workers saw the settlers coming on Thursday, they fled, but as Yassin is deaf he couldn't hear people warning him to leave, said the family member.

In the video, Yassin runs from a group of masked people before falling to the ground.

One man kicks him and another hits him twice with what appears to be a stick. Yassin stays on his knees as he's struck again and then places his hands on the ground on all fours. As the men are leaving, one kicks him in the head while others strike him again until he's seen lying on the pavement.

Arab World

Unified Arab, Islamic Stances ‘Tighten the Noose’ on Israel’s Moves in Somaliland

Somalis demonstrate in support of their country’s territorial unity in Mogadishu on January 7, 2026. (AP)
Somalis demonstrate in support of their country’s territorial unity in Mogadishu on January 7, 2026. (AP)
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Unified Arab, Islamic Stances ‘Tighten the Noose’ on Israel’s Moves in Somaliland

Somalis demonstrate in support of their country’s territorial unity in Mogadishu on January 7, 2026. (AP)
Somalis demonstrate in support of their country’s territorial unity in Mogadishu on January 7, 2026. (AP)

Arab and Islamic positions continued to express a firm rejection of Israel’s recognition of Somaliland as an independent state, reaffirming Somalia’s unity and territorial integrity.

This wave of coordinated diplomacy coincides with heightened engagement within international and UN-affiliated bodies, raising questions about the extent to which such positions can effectively constrain Israel’s recent moves, most notably the visit by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar to the self-declared breakaway region.

On Friday, Arab and Islamic states issued strong condemnations of what they described as Saar’s illegal visit to Somaliland earlier in the week, saying it constituted a blatant violation of Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and undermined established international norms and the UN Charter.

The condemnation came in a joint statement by the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Bangladesh, Comoros, Djibouti, Gambia, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, the Maldives, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Türkiye and Yemen, along with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The ministers reiterated their unwavering support for Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and rejected any encouragement of separatist agendas, warning that such moves risk exacerbating tensions in an already fragile region.

They stressed that respect for international law, non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states, and adherence to diplomatic norms are essential pillars of regional and international stability.

The statement came on the eve of an emergency ministerial meeting of the OIC on Saturday at the organization’s headquarters in Jeddah, aimed at forging a unified Islamic position in response to Israel’s recognition of Somaliland.

Analysts told Asharq Al-Awsat that coordinated collective action could “tighten the noose” around Israel’s recent steps in the breakaway region, discouraging other countries from following Israel’s lead and seeking to isolate Israel internationally. Such pressure, they said, could also create space for possible measures by the Somali government or open the door to intra-Somali dialogue.

Since Israel announced its recognition of Somaliland on Dec. 26, Egypt, Türkiye, Djibouti and Somalia have acted collectively, issuing a joint statement condemning the move and rejecting any unilateral measures that undermine Somali sovereignty or promote parallel entities that threaten the unity of the Somali state.

The following day, 21 Arab and Islamic countries, together with the OIC, warned that recognizing the independence of parts of sovereign states sets a dangerous precedent and threatens international peace and security.

Egyptian diplomat Salah Halima said the unified Arab and Islamic positions are active and effective, aligning with stances taken by the Arab League, the African Union, the European Union and the United Nations.

He noted that while the United States has expressed support for Somalia’s unity, its position on Israel’s step remains ambiguous, raising concerns about the possibility of further recognitions.

Former Egyptian assistant foreign minister for African affairs Mona Omar noted that Israel has a record of disregarding international appeals and resolutions, but broad collective opposition deepens its isolation and complicates efforts to advance its plans in Somaliland.

She added that stronger US backing for Somalia’s unity would leave Israel facing genuine isolation in the region, even if it does not ultimately reverse its recognition.

African affairs expert Rami Zahdi stressed that unified positions can have tangible impact if embedded in a comprehensive strategy to counter Israeli moves, protect stability in the Horn of Africa, and prevent the fragmentation of national states.

He described the explicit demand for Israel to withdraw its recognition as a form of measured, escalatory diplomacy that moves beyond symbolic condemnation toward organized political and legal pressure.