24 May 2017•Update: 24 May 2017
By Kaamil Ahmed
JERUSALEM
Thousands of Israeli settlers descended on Jerusalem's Old City on Wednesday to mark Israel's capture of East Jerusalem 50 years ago.
For Israelis, "Jerusalem Day" commemorates what they describe as the city's "unification" during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, according to the Hebrew calendar.
The Palestinians, for their part, see it as the beginning of the occupation of East Jerusalem.
Many shops in the area were told by police to close their doors on Wednesday afternoon ahead of a planned march by hardline Israeli nationalists through the city's Muslim Quarter and towards the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site.
"How should I feel? They [Israeli settlers] come down here and dance around. What am I supposed to feel?" one shopkeeper asked, preferring anonymity.
Another shopkeeper said he would have closed his doors -- even if he had not been told to by police -- because he feared that marchers would attack his shop.
According to Firas Dibs, a spokesman for the the Islamic Waqf, which runs the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, almost 1000 hardline Israeli nationalists entered the religious site -- under heavy police guard -- on Wednesday morning.
He said three Waqf guards had been arrested, while a handful of Israelis were removed from the area after breaching a ban on Jewish prayer at the site, where Jews believe their ancient temple once stood.
Controversially, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely on Tuesday urged activists from the Jewish Temple Mount movement to enter the flashpoint site.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry, for its part, condemned Wednesday's march, accusing the Israeli authorities of adopting "oppressive measures".
"The raising of Israeli flags and removal of dozens of Palestinian flags will not change reality," the ministry said in a statement.
At a speech marking Jerusalem Day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "The Temple Mount and the Western Wall will forever remain under Israeli sovereignty."
While entrances to the Al-Aqsa Mosque are guarded by Israeli police, the site itself is administered by the Islamic Waqf, which has remained under Jordanian authority since 1967.
