The police gave official permission Wednesday to hold the annual
Flagdance – "Rikudgalim" – march through Jerusalem on Jerusalem Day,
reversing a previous decision to prevent the march from passing
through its traditional route.
The police relented after Bnei Akiva Yeshivas Center Chairman Rav
Chaim Druckman and MK Uri Ariel met with Jerusalem District Police
Chief Maj. Gen. Niso Shacham and asked him to reconsider the decision
to ban or reroute the march. Rav Druckman personally promised that he
would act to prevent confrontations between the marchers and
residents of the Muslim Quarter.
The march will pass from King George Street into the Old City,
through Shechem Gate and Yaffo Gate.
The organizers had planned to petition the High Court against the
earlier police decision against the march, and threatened to hold a
huge protest demonstration outside the police headquarters in
Jerusalem instead of the march. These plans were cancelled when the
police relented.
Organizers said that they expect participants in the march,
especially youth, to avoid confrontations and abusive remarks
that "only show weakness." Bnei Akiva Director Danny Hirschberg sent
an urgent letter to the movement´s counselors on Thursday, asking
them not to allow marchers to behave in a disorderly fashion, as some
did last year.
About 35 people were arrested last year following confrontations
between the marchers, and Arabs and leftists who had hurled abuse at
them.
