I’ve photographed the annual Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day march for several years, certainly since 2006, and although the march itself has remained basically the same, it has become much more controversial, with various groups now demonstrating against it. Al-Quds Day was started by Ayatollah Khomeini soon after he seized power in Iran in 1989, and is organised by the ‘Islamic Human Rights Commission‘, seen by many as financed by and representing the views of the Iranian theocracy.
Of course other groups and individuals are involved in the march, not just the IHRC – and although that apparently receives funding from the Iranian government it does at times seem to produce valuable reports. Its an event that supports the Palestinian cause and I think it would be better if a wider range of organisations adopted it and joined in – as do for example the Neturei Karta ultra-orthodox Jews.
Jewish woman stops to argue with Neturei Karta Jews
Sometimes its hard not to see stereotypes – and rather fun to do so.
Prayers before the march
Neturei Karta leader
Recitation from the Qur’an at the start of the rally outside the US embassy
But I do try to take something a little different, and was pleased with a few of the images that I made. You can see more of them on My London Diary.
But for most of the photographers present, the main story was not the march itself, but the opposition to it by the English Defence League. Here again I tried to tell a slightly different story, though it wasn’t easy as you can see in my next post.