"[2][5][6][7] Palestinian residents frequently shutter their businesses and homes on the day of the march for fear of being subjected to violence from Israeli marchers, or after being ordered to do so by the Israel Police, who also institute closures and checkpoints in and around the Old City.

[3][8][9][10] The Dance of Flags is associated almost exclusively with the Religious Zionism party, which had led the efforts to overhaul Israel's judiciary that sparked the 2023 Israeli judicial reform protests.

[13] During the parade, Israeli flag-bearers march through the city streets, accompanied by mobile orchestras on trucks playing Hasidic songs.

Although in the first years of the parade various sectors of the Israeli society took part in it, today, most of the participants in the march and celebrations are members of Religious Zionism who journey to the city from all over Israel.

[15] The event is funded by the association, the Jerusalem Municipality, the Ministry of Education and the Society for the Rehabilitation and Development of the Jewish Quarter.

In 2015, the Israeli High Court rejected a petition by a coalition of NGOs to change the route of the march so that it does not pass through the Muslim Quarter, though warned that participants engaging in nationalistic violence or shouting anti-Arab slogans could face criminal charges.

[19] In 2017, in honor of the 50th anniversary of what Israelis consider the Reunification of Jerusalem, it was decided that the flag dance would also surround the Old City from the east and enter through the Dung Gate.

[7][28] At the march, "group of participants hurled stones, water bottles, flag staffs and other items at a crowd of largely Muslim reporters positioned above Damascus Gate.

"[3] The US State Department condemned the "outrageous and unacceptable" violence and racist behaviour, in which Jewish crowds attacked a number of journalists, photographers, and Palestinian residents with sticks, flagpoles and glass bottles.

[34] Hasson further reported that in "the morning, hours before the official march set off, groups of Jewish youths" overran the Muslim Quarter, "pushed, cursed, spat, threatened and attacked Palestinian passersby and journalists … intimidating the shopkeepers and residents", then when Palestinians hid away, the youths instead "repeatedly threatened, cursed and pushed" any journalists and photographers.