(RNS) — Jerusalem Day marks Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Six-Day War. There was a time, not long ago, when many Jews marked the day as a time of joy and gratitude to God for being allowed once again to worship at the Western Wall, the remnant of the ancient central Jewish Holy Temple’s retaining wall, from which they had been barred since 1948.

Many Jews still solemnly observe the day that way. Sadly, though, of late, the Jerusalem Day “Flag March” through the streets of the holy city, a once peaceful, heartfelt affair, has been marred by the actions of ultranationalistic hooligans.

Last Thursday (May 14), before the march began, young men began chanting anti-Arab and anti-Islam slogans. Scuffles between Jews and Arabs broke out, and chairs were thrown by members of each group at the other. An Israeli-Palestinian coexistence group moved in to try to stop the confrontation, with limited success. Arab residents and shopkeepers, many of them likely Israeli citizens, felt the need to barricade themselves in their East Jerusalem homes and close their shops.

Watching videos of the hateful chants conjured in my mind my late father’s recollection of his boyhood in the 1930s, and how the Jews in his Polish shtetl stayed indoors and shut all the windows when townsfolk riled up by their churches’ Easter sermons marched down the streets and would assault any Jew they might encounter.

Setting the tone of Thursday’s nationalistic bombast was Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit earlier in the day to the Temple Mount, where he raised an Israeli flag and proclaimed “the Temple Mount is in our hands,” a reference to the tearful words of an Israeli paratrooper commander in 1967, when the Mount was secured.

The mount is indeed the site that once hosted the Jewish Holy Temple. But it is currently home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Israel, when it conquered the city in 1967, pledged that Islamic worship there would not be disturbed. Respected rabbinic authorities have also forbidden Jews from ascending the mount.

Many people don’t have a good read on Israeli society. The majority of Israelis are either secular or “traditional,” meaning they embrace Judaism as their faith and celebrate Jewish holidays but are not strictly observant. Haredi, sometimes called “ultra-Orthodox,” constitute 10% to 14%; and some 13% to 16% are non-Haredi Orthodox. That latter segment mixes nationalistic pride with religious belief and observance. 

A relatively small but very vocal and active subset of that nationalist segment, unlike the Haredim — who are strictly religious but not fanatics — well deserves the prefix “ultra” when it comes to nationalism. Members of that subset include the so-called Hilltop Youth group that has attacked Arabs and Arab property in the West Bank with rising force recently, and those who acted despicably during the Flag March.

So, Jerusalem Day has become two different things. To most Israelis, and countless Jews worldwide, it is a time to focus on gratitude and hope. To some, though, it is a time to assert political dominance and to insult Arabs and Islam.

This is more than a public relations disaster that’s giving Israel’s critics and enemies more support for their criticisms and enmity. It is morally, Jewishly, wrong. Hard stop.

Nothing in Judaism mandates or allows the abuse of non-Jews in the Holy Land or anywhere. And everything in Judaism mandates respect for others, especially those who identify with God-centered faiths.

Yes, Israel faces grave challenges from Islamist movements, and hotbeds of terrorism fester in some West Bank Arab towns. But none of that excuses or permits the sort of behavior that was seen last Thursday in Jerusalem, a city whose name includes the Hebrew word for peace.

And yes, Israel faces other internal pressures. Haredim are reviled by many, if not most, secular Israelis, primarily because of the central Haredi ideal of Torah study and practice, and their resulting shunning of military service. But the truly dangerous internal element of Israeli society is not the conscientious objectors but rather the citizens who sang and chanted hatred of Arabs and Islam, and who vandalized Arab shops.

One photo of the debris on the floor of an Old City shop that had been broken into showed religious-themed souvenirs, among them several menorahs, candelabras used on the Hanukkah holiday. The menorah, flanked by two olive branches, is also the official emblem of the state of Israel.

The menorahs lying on the floor seemed symbolic in their own way, representing the need for Israel to decisively rein in and, when warranted, criminally prosecute, those among its citizens who seek not to live in peace but rather to provoke anger and assert domination over others.

(Rabbi Avi Shafran writes widely in Jewish and general media and has a Substack here. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)