As Israelis prepared to celebrate Jerusalem Day, the Jewish state’s leaders made it clear that Israel’s sovereignty is not up for debate.
By United with Israel Staff
On Sunday, Israelis observed Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), celebrating the reunification of the Jewish people’s eternal capital after Israeli forces liberated Jerusalem in June 1967.
Indeed, Israel achieved a stunning victory over the armies of attacking Arab nations, which sought total annihilation of the Jewish state.
Instead, the city was reunited and the Jewish people regained control of Judaism’s holiest site, the Temple Mount.
As in years past, Palestinian terror groups incited violence ahead of Yom Yerushalayim, threatening to launch rocket attacks from Gaza, to riot on the Temple Mount, and to attack Israeli celebrants in the nation’s capital.
The threats were issued by Gaza-based terror organizations and the Iranian terror proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In response, Israeli leaders vowed that its people would not be intimidated by Palestinian threats, many of which centered on Sunday’s Day Flag March, which follows a path through the Old City’s Muslim Quarter.
“We will hold whatever kind of march we want to in our capital,” said Defense Minister Benny Gantz, in a message directed at Hamas terrorists. “You will not threaten our sovereignty.”
“Last year Hamas decided to fire rockets, and it still regrets that Operation Guardian of the Walls ever happened,” added Gantz, Times of Israel reported.
At a Yom Yerushalayim event on Sunday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke at the state ceremony for Ethiopian Jews who perished on their way to Israel.
“On Jerusalem Day, we mark not only the unity of our capital but also the unity of our people,” said Bennett. “On this day we commit ourselves: Jerusalem will never again be divided; the people of Israel will never again be divided.”