JERUSALEM — Israel celebrated the 43rd anniversary on Wednesday of Jerusalem's reunification in the 1967 Mideast war, and its mayor pledged to keep the city undivided despite Palestinian claims to its eastern half.
The Jewish section of Jerusalem took on a festive mood Wednesday with colorful parades, events and speeches by political leaders.
Hundreds of youths marched from a main square in Jewish west Jerusalem toward the Old City. Earlier, an extremist Israeli group called the Temple Mount Faithful carried 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.
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".
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 first Jerusalem Day speech late Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu carefully avoided clear statements about continuing construction in all parts 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.
Netanyahu's only reference to construction was a general one, in which he said Jerusalem is "a concept regarding our people's modern and developed capital, and we are building it and will continue to build and develop it".
Associated Press
