The Jewish East End & Al-Quds Day: On Sunday 22 October 2006 I went on a morning guided walk around parts of the formerly Jewish East End, one of the activities of the now long gone (and still missed) London Arts Café. The name was rather misleading as it never achieved its aim to open a cafe dedicated to London and the arts in the city, but did organise some interesting talks as well as exhibitions at various venues showing painting and photography of London and walks and visits such as this. Some record of these is still on-line although the organisation closed down in 2007, though was continued as a short-lived Meetup group.
After lunch I went to Marble Arch for the start of the annual Al-Quds Day march. I didn’t stay long as it began to rain heavily.
Here (with minor corrections) is all I wrote in 2006 and a few of the pictures. You can still see more at the links to My London Diary.
The (formerly) Jewish East End
On Sunday morning I took a walk with members of London Arts Cafe through the once Jewish areas of London’s East End. We were fortunate to be able to go in both the Fieldgate Street Great Synagogue, as well as the Bevis Marks Synagogue, Britain’s oldest standing Jewish place of worship, built in 1698, where unfortunately, photography is not allowed, but you can see some other pictures from our walk.
A few more pictures on My London Diary
International Al-Quds Day March
Marble Arch
Al-Quds is Jerusalem, and Sunday saw the annual march calling for its liberation, and that of Palestine.
The idea of an international Al-Quds Day came from Ayatollah Khomeini, shortly after he gained power in Iran in 1979.
Shortly after the start of the march, it started to rain heavily and I came home rather than get my equipment soaked again.
A few more pictures on My London Diary.
The External Security Organisation of Hizbullah was proscribed in the UK in 2001, but it was only in 2008 that the whole of its military wing was proscribed. But Hizbullah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party with around 12% of the seats in the Lebanese Parliament, and operates a vast social services network in the country including schools and hospitals, as well as a satellite TV station. The party flag covers both the civil and the military wings of the party, and so its display was not an offence after the 2008 proscription. There were probably more Hisbullah flags on display than usual in 2006 because the march took place just a couple of months after the Israeli invasion and occupation of parts of Lebanon in July-August 2006.
Following years of lobbying the proscription was extended to cover the whole organisation in 2019 and it is now an offence to carry the flag. My pictures are a historical record and do not imply any support for the organisation.
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