Al-Quds is the Arabic name of Jerusalem (and its Quds in Persian) and in 1979 the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini invited “Muslims all over the globe to consecrate the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan as Al-Quds Day and to proclaim the international solidarity of Muslims in support of the legitimate rights of the Muslim people of Palestine.” He also said it was “a universal day to support the oppressed against the oppressor.”
In Iran there are large state-sponsored protests against the Israeli domination of Jerusalem in particular, but also more widely against Israel’s repression of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and in support of the Palestinian cause. As well as in Iran, there are protests in a number of other countries around the world, including the UK. Here a major part of the protest is the call for a boycott of Israeli goods.
Although most of those actually marching in London are Muslims, including many from Birmingham, Manchester and other cities with substantial Muslim populations, the event is also supported by some non-Muslim groups, including the Stop the War Coalition and several Jewish groups including Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods and the anti-Zionist ultra-orthodox Neturei Karta who oppose both the State of Israel and Zionism on religious grounds.
The march has been taking place annually in London for over 10 years (I think I first photographed it in 2006, though possibly I took images in previous years on film) and has attracted criticism from some Jewish and ultra-right groups, as well as various Iranian opposition groups – the march is organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission which is thought to receive funding from Iran.
I’ve seen little evidence of anti-Semitism on these marches, and have seen the stewards take action to remove a clearly anti-Semitic banner. Clearly everyone marching is against Zionism and Israeli attacks on Palestinians and their human rights. One of the more curious spectacles on one previous march was s to see members of a neo-Nazi group, some with clear records of anti-Semitic actions hurling the insult of anti-Semitism at Jews and Muslims marching side by side and sometimes arm-in-arm through London.
For the past couple of years there have been no real counter-protests – last year a pro-Zionist shouted and threw vegetables from an upper-floor window at the marchers and this year a young man shouted at the marchers and handed out misleading leaflets about how well Israel treated the Palestinians, arguing with some of them until the police led him away.
One complaint against the march has been that many on it carried Hezbollah flags and some have said this is illegal. The flag serves for both the military wing – which is proscribed – and the political party which forms a part of the Lebanese government, which, at least in the EU and UK, is not proscribed. There were in any case very few such flags in evidence at this year’s march -and I was looking carefully for them – a handful among the several thousand marchers.
Because of the origins of the event I was also particularly keen to photograph banners and posters which referenced Ayatollah Khomeini – and again these were relatively few. Overwhelmingly this is a march in support of Palestine and calling for its freedom and an end to Israeli aggression and repression there.
My pictures also include many more of women than of men on the protest, mainly because most of the women are in Muslim dress, while the men, apart from the religious readers wear the kind of casual dress that you would see on any high street. Just a few women turned away from my lens, but most seemed rather keen to be photographed, and I had no problems in taking pictures, something which has occasionally been a problem in the past at some Muslim events.
More on My London Diary at Al Quds Day march.
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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
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