Millions commemorate Al-Quds Day around the world

Millions of people around the world rallied in solidarity with Palestine on March 13 to mark the International Day of Al-Quds. (Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem.)

The annual commemoration, held on the last Friday of the Holy Month of Ramadan, was initiated in Iran after the U.S.-backed tyrant called the Shah was overthrown in 1979. This year, millions of Iranians took to the streets despite their country being attacked by U.S. bombs and missiles

The 180 school children who were murdered by the bombing of the elementary school in Minab impelled people everywhere to protest. Capitalist regimes sought to prevent people from marching in solidarity with both Palestine and Iran.

Thousands gathered in London, where police forced them to rally on the south bank of the River Thames and barred them from marching. Undeterred, many chanted in support of Iran’s fightback against the Zionist apartheid state. 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford tried to ban the Quds Day rally in Toronto but failed. A thousand people came out anyway.

Hundreds of thousands marched in Yemen, a heroic country that’s been viciously bombed by the Pentagon. Large marches took place in Iraq, Malaysia, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Thousands marched throughout Indonesia; protests were also held in Stockholm.

There were marches held around the United States, including New York City, where people gathered in Times Square for a protest organized by the Al-Quds Committee. Protesters waved Palestinian and Iranian flags and carried signs and chanted slogans condemning Zionist genocide in Palestine and Lebanon and the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

Speakers included Sheikh Fahim Abdulghani from Texas, Rabbi Joseph Kohn from American Jews Against Zionism, Roger Wareham from December 12 Movement, Hadil from Palestinian Youth Movement, Tahreem from Shah E Najaf Center, Amani from Muslim Girl and Bill Dee from PAL-Awda NY/NJ. There was also a beautiful Quran recitation by Taqi.

Dee described the U.S. attack on Iran as “Wall Street’s war, a bankers’ war” to restore U.S. corporate ownership of the region’s oil reserves and to bail out the U.S. fracking industry. He described the racist settler state of “Israel” as an enforcer in a protection racket run from Washington. He also described the war and U.S. support of “Israel” as a pretext to plunder oppressed and working-class communities here, as Dr. Martin Luther King said of the U.S. war against Vietnam.

Close to a thousand people marched down Broadway to Herald Square.

“Nat Turner was hanged in Jerusalem, Virginia, on Nov. 11, 1831, after leading a revolt of enslaved Africans. In both that Jerusalem and in Al-Quds, oppressors have tried to crush rebellion by terror — and have failed to stop it — just as the struggle of the Palestinian people and the fightback by the people of Iran continue, no less righteous.