Israel pledges to keep Jerusalem undivided

Israel’s prime minister pledged to keep Jerusalem undivided despite Palestinian claims to its eastern half, as Israelis celebrated the 43rd anniversary Wednesday of the city’s reunification in the 1967 Mideast War.

The Jewish section of Jerusalem took on a festive mood Wednesday with parades and speeches by political leaders, touching only lightly on the political explosiveness of the hotly contested city.

Hundreds of youths, many carrying Israeli flags, marched in the annual Jerusalem Day parade from a main square in Jewish west Jerusalem toward the Old City. Earlier, an extremist Israeli group called the Temple Mount Faithful toted flags and banners through the Old City, demanding that Israel take full control of the hotly disputed holy site where the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound sits atop the ruins of the biblical Jewish Temples. Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven at the site.

Walking in the parade through downtown toward east Jerusalem, Merav Adler, 18, said she was marching in support of Israel’s keeping the whole city. “It is very important for us to show that we can march from west to east,” said Adler, who lives in the nearby West Bank settlement of Efrat. Palestinian neighborhoods were mostly calm Wednesday, with residents ignoring the Israeli celebrations nearby.

Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. Israel annexed that sector shortly after the 1967 war, although no other country has recognized the Israeli claim.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said Wednesday the city’s boundaries are “nonnegotiable,” while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “we will never go back to a divided Jerusalem that is cold and torn.” Between 1949 and 1967, Jerusalem was split by concrete and barbed wire barriers between Israel and Jordan.

The city is a key issue in U.S.-mediated Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts that resumed last week after a 17-month standstill. Palestinians demand that Israel stop all construction in West Bank settlements and east Jerusalem. Israel has agreed to slow construction, but has rejected a total halt.

In his Jerusalem Day speeches, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu carefully avoided any provocative statements about continuing construction in all of Jerusalem, declarations he has made in the past. As part of the deal to restart peace talks, Netanyahu pledged to hold off on building in one of the neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, and the U.S. has made it clear it would not accept announcements of additional projects there.