ByIDAN ZONSHINE

A controversial flag march through the Old City of Jerusalem was called off on Monday after Israel Police rejected the organizers’ request that participants be allowed to march through the Old City’s Damascus Gate.The march was viewed as a possible way to set off violence on the eve of the swearing in of a new government in the Knesset.The police emphasized that the current route of the march has been rejected, but that it could be approved if the route were to change to exclude Damascus Gate.Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi, the police inspector-general and additional security authorities to discuss the march.Religious Zionist MK Bezalel Smotrich called the decision a “shameful surrender to terrorism and Hamas threats.” His fellow party member, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said that he would still march the planned route. “I do not plan to give up,” Ben-Gvir said.Likud MK May Golan, who was heavily criticized on Monday for referring to Yamina and New Hope Party leaders Naftali Bennett and Gideon Sa’ar as “suicide bombers” due to their decision to form a government without Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said she would join Ben-Gvir in marching anyway.The Joint List released a statement in response to the cancellation which said that “Racist hate demonstrations and calls for murder are not protected under freedom of expression and protest. Especially when it comes to occupied territory.”“We will continue to stand firm against the Right’s attempts to ignite Jerusalem and the entire region and lead to bloodshed,” the statement added.On Sunday, Hamas Spokesperson Khalil al-Hayya warned that “provocations” against Palestinians should be stopped, including the flags march, so that this upcoming Thursday “is not like May 11,” or Jerusalem Day, when rockets were hurled towards Jerusalem.In protest, Palestinian activist groups are planning a counter-march for Thursday, N12 reported.Originally, the march was scheduled to pass through the Damascus Gate near the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Organizers said that the march was needed to make up for the one that was canceled last month on Jerusalem Day due to the escalation in tensions on the Temple Mount and with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.A post on social media over the weekend invited people to join Thursday’s march, saying: “The flag march is returning big time!... Returning to march in the streets of Jerusalem with our heads held high and with Israeli flags.”

A few hours before the controversial Flag March was scheduled to take place, the Sovereignty Movement is expected to launch the “Greater Jerusalem” project, calling for the expansion of Jerusalem to include Gush Etzion, Mevaseret Zion, Ma’aleh Adumim and parts of the Binyamin Regional Council.The announcement of the project is scheduled to take place during the third Youth Sovereignty Conference in the Oz Vegaon Nature Reserve in Gush Etzion and will “focus on the centrality of Jerusalem in the life of the people of Israel and the State of Israel,” the group wrote in a statement.The leaders of the sovereignty movement, Yehudit Katzover and Nadia Matar, said that the choice to focus on the conference on the centrality of Jerusalem in the life of Israel and the State of Israel stems, among other things, from a reaction to violent riots which shook mixed-ethnicity cities nationwide last month and the threats against Israel which were seen coming from Iran, Turkey, Hamas and Hezbollah.Tobias Siegal contributed to this report.