Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting Monday night in his office with top government ministers to discuss the cancellation of the rescheduled Jerusalem Flag Dance March that was to take place this coming Thursday.
Jerusalem police denied the decision to cancel the event had come from them, but instead said final approval was to come from law enforcement and relevant political officials. They added that the event would be re-evaluated if organizers file for a new permit with a different plan, or date.
Those asked to attend the meeting include Public Security Minister Amir Ohana, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Israel Police Commissioner Ya’akov Shabtai and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) director Nadav Argaman.
Ohana said in an interview Monday evening on IDF Army Radio Galei Tzahal that he was planning to override Shabtai’s decision to cancel the march.
“We do not usually interfere in these types of police decisions but due to the national and political importance of this incident, we want to make this decision ourselves,” Ohana said, adding the decision will be made before Wednesday.
Labor MK Gilad Kariv wrote a tweet in response that called Ohana’s announcement “another chapter in the outgoing government’s attempt to leave a scorched earth.”
Religious Zionism Party Chairperson Bezalel Smotrich called the decision “an embarrassing capitulation to terror and to Hamas threats.”
Arab activists said they will hold a (PLO) flag march on Thursday from Damascus Gate to the Temple Mount.