New Israel Govt Faces Early Test With Far-right March

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New Israel govt faces early test with far-right march

Israel's fledgling new government faced an early test Tuesday as Jewish ultranationalists prepared to march into annexed east Jerusalem, stoking tensions the UN has warned threaten a fragile Gaza ceasefire

Jerusalem, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Jun, 2021 ) :Israel's fledgling new government faced an early test Tuesday as Jewish ultranationalists prepared to march into annexed east Jerusalem, stoking tensions the UN has warned threaten a fragile Gaza ceasefire.

Rallies by far-right Jewish groups in Arab neighbourhoods have raised tensions in recent months, prompting a police intervention in the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound that triggered the deadliest flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence since 2014.

The so-called March of the Flags, which celebrates the anniversary of Israel's 1967 occupation of the city's eastern sector, was originally scheduled for last Thursday but was delayed due to Israeli police opposition to the route and warnings from Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas.

The former government of veteran premier Benjamin Netanyahu put off the march until Tuesday, a decision confirmed late Monday by the incoming government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

"The right to demonstrate is a right in all democracies," said Internal Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev.

"The police is ready and we will do everything in our power to preserve the delicate thread of coexistence." Organisers consulted police on the best route for the march that begins at 1430 GMT to avoid friction with Arab residents, the government said.

But Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh condemned it as a provocation.

"We warn of the dangerous repercussions that may result from the occupying power's intention to allow extremist Israeli settlers to carry out the Flag March in occupied Jerusalem tomorrow," Shtayyeh tweeted in English.

He said it was "a provocation and aggression against our people, Jerusalem and its sanctities that must end".

The new Israeli premier is himself a Jewish nationalist but the coalition he leads also includes centrist and left-wing parties and, for the first time in the country's history, an Arab party.

The support of the four lawmakers of the Islamic conservative Raam party was vital to the wafer-thin majority that the government won in a historic confidence vote that unseated Netanyahu on Sunday.