"Make America Great Again" hats and blue Trump-Pence shirts were easily spotted. American flags waved in the wind. Chants of "Lock her up" echoed outside, a mainstay of Donald Trump's speeches aimed at his rival Hillary Clinton.
But the Jewish head coverings, Hebrew conversations and Israeli flags gave this rally in support of the Republican presidential candidate a decidedly different flavour than the ones held in the US.
About 250 people gathered on Wednesday for a pro-Trump pep rally that overlooked the historic Old City walls, a symbolic location underlining the event speakers' main message: Jerusalem is Israel's eternal capital, and a President Trump would depart from long-held US policy and recognise that fact.
Speakers repeatedly denounced the recent UNESCO vote to condemn Israeli measures that hinder Muslim access to the al-Aqsa compound. Israelis were particularly incensed that the resolution did not explicitly note the Jewish connection to the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
The Trump rally, which featured Christian evangelicals, Israeli-American settlers and Trump staffers, was the biggest show of force yet for the pro-Trump campaign in Israel, which is hoping to turn out the Israeli-American vote for the Republican ticket.
Republicans Overseas Israel, the group leading pro-Trump efforts in Israel, has set up outreach offices across Israel and in settlements in the occupied West Bank - a first for a presidential campaign - to drum up support for Trump and Mike Pence, his pick for vice president.
Recent polls, however, suggest that Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton commands the most support among Israelis, though there are no polls of only Israeli-Americans.
While Trump's earlier statements on Israel raised eyebrows among the pro-Israel community - including a vow to remain "neutral" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a refusal to say whether he would recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital - the presidential hopeful has changed his tune.
Source: Aje
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