The Zionist right takes the Hebrew anniversary of the occupation of Jerusalem on May 28 as a periodic annual occasion to showcase its alleged sovereignty over Jerusalem with a large and widespread storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque in the morning, and with a flag march between four and six in the afternoon, which begins with thousands of settlers marching around its old town, and then storming it from Damascus Gate via Al-Wad Street and performing dances celebrating the domination of Jerusalem in front of every road heading towards the gates of the Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, during which the settlers practice all kinds of assault, beating, cursing, vandalism and contempt of sanctities, to prove with this cheap spite that they are capable of everything that represents its Arab identity and its Islamic and Christian sanctities.

What this aggressive, barbaric image hides underneath is that merely resorting to this temporary and symbolic form of displaying alleged sovereignty is an implicit acknowledgment of its loss. Whoever has sovereignty over the city is supposed to be its owner and resident, not to come intruding into it, and elements of his identity are supposed to be present in every corner. In it, he should not try to parade it with large numbers of cloth flags, and it is assumed that his entry into it is a foregone conclusion and does not require thousands of police personnel and the mobilization of the army, politicians, and regional and international relations. What kind of “state” needs all these measures to bring its “citizens” into its “capital”?! 

By adopting this symbolic and temporary form, the occupier at the same time opens the doors to defeat and achieve the complete opposite of what he wants. Even if he uses raising flags in its skies as a title for displaying identity, its failure is possible even with his logic and method. The flag of Palestine is a symbol of the identity of this land and the steadfastness and resistance of its people. It can be present on every house, on every school and facility, and on every vehicle. Its colors can be present on the clothing of every child, woman, man, and old man. The day the occupier displays its flags could be a day in which the land and skies of Jerusalem announce the flags of Palestine, and this is what Jerusalem actually did last year despite all the arrogance and aggression.

Going to the battle of the symbol is an opportunity for us outside Jerusalem and even outside Palestine, an opportunity to declare the Day of the Flag Parade a day for the Palestinian flag, a victory for the identity of Jerusalem, and a recall of the aspiration to liberate it. It is the only just, possible and acceptable end, for the occupation to disappear and for all its attempts to impose its identity to disappear, and for it to remain. This land bears witness to the identity of its people and owners who are rooted in it. We can simply declare Thursday and Friday, May 18 and 19, 2023, as Palestinian Flag Day in every possible city and square, in the Arab and Islamic world and across the world, in which the flags of Palestine are raised alongside the local flags, thus forming a scene of a global message that confirms its identity and supports its steadfast people, from Malaysia and Indonesia to Morocco and to the areas of Europe and the Americas as well. If we do that, we will turn the occupation's annual attempt to demonstrate its sovereignty over Jerusalem into a day to showcase its injustice, to showcase the unchangeable truth that it is an aggressor occupier, and to showcase an international unity that aspires to liberate it.

The march of flags was the subject of a battle in 2021. It dispersed after the warning missiles were launched on 5/10/2021 with the launch of the Battle of Saif Al-Quds, and the attempt to bring it back on 6/10/2021 dissipated in the face of the possibilities of renewed confrontation. Then the call for it was repeated four days later and it was limited to reaching Bab al-Amud Square without entering the Old City. The occupation was keen to make it, in the following year, a symbol of restoring the image and the initiative, so it accompanied it with the guarding of five thousand members of its special forces, and with the largest military maneuver by its army called “Chariots of Fire,” and with international and regional communications, putting the region on the brink of war only until the march of its settlers entered the Old City.

This year, the current aggression against Gaza does not come far from the imposition of the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the flag march on Thursday 18-5. If we recall the retreat of the occupation in 2021, and the retreat imposed on it in the battle of seclusion in Ramadan, then pre-empting the march with this aggression ten days ago is Only days from its scheduled date, the aim is to arrange the field in a way that ensures the imposition of the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque in the morning and the flag march in the evening without fear of escalation. Perhaps the occupier will restore the scene of his monopolization of Jerusalem and his control over it after the recent retreats imposed on him.

The occupation was not satisfied with that, but the extremist Temple groups were demanding that the flags march be crowned with an evening storming of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, to be the first march in its history to storm Al-Aqsa, and to impose an evening storming for the first time in the history of Al-Aqsa, and to try to bring the Lions’ Gate north of the mosque within the scope of their control by demanding that it be Its entry into Al-Aqsa, and its demand to bring in 7,500 of its extremists, whose largest intrusions did not exceed 2,200 intruders with repetition, and its demand to bring flags and drums into the mosque at the time of the afternoon prayer or shortly after it.

The important irony that must not be overlooked here is that these high-level demands come in the context of a fundamental decline. The date of the Hebrew anniversary of the occupation of Jerusalem is Friday 5/19/2023 according to the Hebrew calendar, but the occupation government and its extremists moved the storming to Thursday due to their inability to storm Al-Aqsa on the same day. Friday, and they moved the evening flag parade to Thursday because they realized that their crowd and the soldiers protecting it were unable to storm the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday, on a holiday when all its people were there, and this in itself must constitute an incentive to thwart this hollow parade.

In conclusion, whatever the illusion and preparation of the occupation, the flag march itself is an expression of a crisis rather than a show of power, and its failure is possible with popular tools, despite their simplicity. On the day of its display of its sovereignty with the Zionist flags through the Damascus Gate, we can make all the squares of the globe speak the identity of Arab Jerusalem. And that its liberation is a cross-border goal, and that its people are not alone in their battle, and that the night of the occupier’s isolation of them will not be long. Today, we must prepare to make Thursday 5-18 and Friday 5-19 days for the Palestinian flag and for sit-ins and demonstrations wherever we can in Palestine and across the world.