The movement Sheikh Jarah Solidarity organized a high-profile march in Jerusalem to demand an independent Palestine in the 1967 borders. More than 3,000 people—Jews, Muslim, and Christians, Israelis and Palestinians—showed up and marched for three hours in the piercing sun, drumming and chanting: "Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies", "Say no to fascism", and "From Bilin to Jerusalem, Palestine will be free." Tens of Palestinian flags were waved on the route which passed alongside the walls of the Old City.
Haaretz newspaper positioned this protest as historic one week ago, with a top-billed opinion editorial by Dr. Yael Sternhell, who compared the march to the historic 1965 civil rights march in Selma, Alabama, to protest the denial of black voting rights in the American South.
Dr. Sternhell is the daughter of the historian Prof. Zeev Sternhell, a Holocaust survivor who wrote many books about the Fasicst regimes in Europe in the 20th century. In 2008, right-wing extermists attempted to assassinate him by placing a pipe bomb in his front yard.
Haaretz newspaper endorsed the protest with an editorial on the morning of the demonstration.