In his annual speech to mark Jerusalem Day, delivered at the city’s Mercaz Harav yeshiva on June 5, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aptly described the excitement and spiritual high Israelis felt on that day in 1967 upon touching the stones of the Western Wall and seeing the Israeli flag flying over the Temple Mount. “We sensed a great connection to generations of Jews linked to the city. … We stood there tearful, excited and committed to protecting Jerusalem, the Temple Mount and the Western Wall,” he said. In the first years, we used to celebrate Jerusalem Day in the streets. No longer. From “the city of peace,” to quote Netanyahu, Jerusalem is turning into the capital of racism. The so-called united city is a record holder in discrimination and division.

Few venues symbolize this as well as the one Netanyahu chooses to deliver his “unification” speeches. It’s hard to find a climate less tolerant of the other, including toward Jews who believe that all people are equal and that Palestinians, too, deserve to lead a dignified life. On Sunday, Netanyahu sat next to Rabbi Dov Lior, who has called for the "cleansing" of Arab citizens from Israel. His remarks won applause from the celebrating yeshiva students. The appropriation of Jerusalem and of its festive day by these circles excludes peace- and equality-loving Israelis. In addition, the 73,000 children who attend ultra-Orthodox kindergartens and schools in the city (75% of the city’s Jewish schoolchildren) do not identify with this “Zionist festival.”

My family members and friends, some of whom were born and raised in Jerusalem, avoid the Jerusalem Day festivities. The television scenes of enthused revelers dancing with Israeli flags through the heart of the Old City’s Muslim Quarter, a habit they have picked up in recent years, make them feel alienated and ashamed. Hundreds of police are deployed in the narrow alleyways to protect the thousands of Palestinian residents shuttered in their homes and the merchants who are forced to lock up their stores. That morning, the Supreme Court rejected a petition by human rights organizations seeking to divert the parade route from the Muslim Quarter. There’s little doubt about the prospects of Palestinians being allowed to dance around the Old City, not to mention the city’s western neighborhoods, waving Palestinian flags to protest Israel’s occupation.

Netanyahu is not helping to resolve the conflict in Jerusalem, but he is not to blame for the problem. The root of this evil can be found in the chorus of “Jerusalem of Gold,” a song that has been elevated to the status of a virtual national anthem: