The United States and the United Nations condemned anti-Arab slogans chanted by tens of thousands of Israeli nationalists during an annual march in the Old City of Jerusalem on Thursday. U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller tweeted: "The United States unequivocally rejects racist language in any form. We condemn abhorrent chants like 'death to Arabs.'"
Palestinian and foreign reporters noted that participants in the march hurled sticks, stones, and bottles at them, injuring some. The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, expressed concern over the "inciting and racist slogans" shouted by some marchers and condemned the attacks on journalists.
Social media videos, which Reuters could not verify, showed scuffles and stone-throwing between Palestinians and Jewish youths, leading to brief clashes in the narrow alleys of the Old City. The Israeli ambulance service reported treating two individuals for minor injuries from stone throwing on Friday. The police stated they used crowd control measures and that one officer was injured. Celebrations of Jerusalem Day have recently become a display of power by Jewish nationalists.
