Israeli nationalists and police clashed with Palestinians in occupied east Jerusalem today as crowds of Jewish hardliners marched across the city to mark the 48th anniversary of its capture.
Known as Jerusalem Day, the anniversary marks the seizure in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexation of mainly Arab east Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community.
Police said two officers were wounded by Palestinian stone-throwers and at least four Palestinians were arrested near the walled Old City's Damascus Gate.
The demonstrators were dispersed by baton-wielding police, some on horseback.
A police statement said that in one incident "several dozen Muslims scuffled with a group of Jews".
Onlookers said at least two Palestinians were wounded in various clashes, and video footage showed a man being taken away on a stretcher by Red Crescent ambulance staff.
Police would not say how many jubilant Zionists descended on the Old City's Muslim Quarter on their way to pray at the Western Wall Jewish holy site, only that "large crowds" were expected.
"They are coming here with the support of an extremist government that paid for their buses," a Palestinian woman, Muna Barbar, told AFP outside Damascus Gate.
The Palestinians want the eastern sector of the city as the capital of their promised state, and vigorously oppose any attempt to extend Israeli control.
But Israeli leaders have repeatedly vowed that the city will never again be split, calling it their "eternal, indivisible" capital.
"Jerusalem has always been the capital of the Jewish people alone and not of any other people," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at an official Jerusalem Day ceremony.
"A divided Jerusalem is a past memory: the future belongs to a complete Jerusalem which will not be divided again."
Jerusalem Day is marked by a series of state ceremonies and an annual march through western Jerusalem and into the east side, which is predominantly attended by nationalist hardliners.
Every year, police deploy in strength to secure the march, which frequently provokes clashes.
This year, two non-governmental organisations appealed to the Israeli High Court to change the route so the march would not pass through the Muslim Quarter.
But last week, the court rejected the appeal, noting it did so "with a heavy heart".
In their ruling, the justices stressed there should be "zero tolerance" of anyone involved in violence, and that police should arrest anyone chanting "death to Arabs".
