Coexistence activists led by Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Druze religious leaders march in Jerusalem for 'human rights and peace,' on May 18, 2026. (Jacob Lazarus/ Rabbis for Human Rights)

Hundreds join interfaith ‘human rights and peace’ march in Jerusalem

Marchers carry signs reading ‘Justice,’ ‘Peace’ and ‘Soul’ in Hebrew, Arabic, and English in counter to nationalist Flag Marches on Jerusalem Day

by · The Times of Israel

Hundreds of people, led by Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Druze religious leaders, set out to Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday as part of an interfaith march for “human rights and peace.”

The march, organized by left-leaning religious organizations for the past four years, was meant to counter Thursday’s nationalist Flag March that runs through the Old City each Jerusalem Day.

It saw several hundred coexistence activists depart from the Jerusalem YMCA and proceed down King David Street toward Jaffa Gate. Many in the crowd held signs emblazoned with words such as “Justice,” “Peace,” and “Soul” in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.

Nuns, an increasingly frequent target of nationalist attacks in Jerusalem, were also seen participating in the march.

Avi Dabush, one of the organizers of the event and a candidate in the Democrats party’s primaries, called the march an alternative to last week’s Jerusalem Day revelry, which saw groups of extremist Jewish youth harass and attack Palestinian residents of the Old City.

“Jerusalem Day should be a celebration of this city in all its richness and of everyone who calls it home, not a day of pushing others out,” he said. “Violence and racism toward members of other faiths are a disgrace, and doubly so from within our own Jewish moral tradition, which teaches that every human being was created in God’s image.”

Jews, Muslims and Christians march during the “Interfaith March for Human Rights and Peace” outside Jerusalem’s Old City, May 18, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Upon reaching Jaffa Gate, marchers were led in prayer at separate points by a rabbi, a priest, and a Muslim social activist. They were then serenaded by singer Achinoam Nini, who performed Israel’s 2009 Eurovision entry, “There Must Be Another Way.”

Sheikh Younes Amasha, a Druze clergyman who heads the Forum of Religious Leaders in Israel, called on marchers to “raise the cry of the minorities in Syria,” during the main event, in particular the Druze, “who have experienced massacres, kidnappings, and severe harm to innocent people… at the hands of extremist organizations.”

On Thursday, tens of thousands of ultra-nationalist Israeli youths marched through the Old City of Jerusalem, with some chanting, “Death to Arabs” and “May your villages burn.”

Israeli youths walk through the streets of the Old City, shouting slogans as they gather to participate in a march marking Jerusalem Day, celebrating the reunification of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War, in Jerusalem, on May 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Far-right politicians, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, raised the Israeli flag on the Temple Mount and called to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and rebuild the Temple, as they marked Jerusalem Day.

Jerusalem Day, which commemorates the reunification of the city under Israeli rule in the 1967 Six Day War, has largely become an event associated with the religious Zionist community.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is seen at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City during Jerusalem Day celebrations, May 14, 2026. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

The march, which runs through the Muslim Quarter and ends at the Western Wall, has frequently descended into violence amid racist chants and provocations.