Episode 63: Celebrating Al-Quds Day

First aired on 8 April 2023

Quds Day is celebrated all over the world after being inaugurated by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979. It is a day of international solidarity with the Palestinian people named with the Arabic word for Jerusalem the capital of Palestine.

The Zionist entity heightened its attempts to suppress Quds day after the Gaza massacre of between 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009. The entity unleased terror on Gaza killing around 1,500 Palestinians. By contrast 13 settlers died and four of them were mistakenly killed by their own side.

The worldwide revulsion against the massacre led to a significant rise in support for the Palestinians and worldwide protests. As a result Israel’s assets increased their attempts to crush the pro Palestinian movement.

Over time the Quds day march would become a key focus of that activity. For example, in the UK, for 27 years the annual Al Quds Day demonstration concluded with a rally in the iconic Trafalgar Square, in the heart of Whitehall and just yards from Downing Street, the residence of the British Prime Minister.

Protests against Quds day in the UK had started in 2007 organised by the Islamophobic pro-Zionist blog Harry’s Place.

By 2009 for the first time the organisers were denied the use of Trafalgar square following threats from Islamophobic groups. The march was also attended by a counter demonstration in which Iranian supporters of the deposed Shah of Iran, the far right, and of course Zionists made common cause. Since then the pressure over Quds Day in the UK has only mounted.

In 2016 there were complaints about the presence of Hezbollah flags from the far right and Zionists. In 2017 the Zionist Federation and a shopping list of Zionist groups organised a counter demonstration. Later activists made complaints about one of the speakers – Nazim Ali a pharmacist and attempted to have him sacked from his job by using false allegations of anti-Semitism to complain to his regulator the General Pharmaceutical Council.

The council concluded his words were not anti-Semitic, but the Zionists – in the shape of the UK Lawyers for Israel and the Campaign Against Antisemitism – both of which are closely linked to the Zionist entity - continued to harass Ali.

The case is still - years later – to be finally decided. It leaves the way open for Zionist groups to harass and intimidate anyone that speaks out on Palestine even to the extent of tying them up in legal procedures for years and potentially losing their reputation, jobs and livelihood.

The Islamic Human Rights Commission has continued to act as organizer and champion of Quds Day in the UK. This year it will happen on Saturday, 16 April, in central London, under the banner of “United Against Apartheid”