Thousands of protestors are expected to turn out in London this weekend to protest the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine.

The annual Al-Quds Day rally looks set to take place as one of the most extremist governments ever seen in Israel wages a largely unreported war against Palestinians under its control.

Since the turn of the year around 100 Palestinians have been killed, with many more injured and hundreds detained, as they resist attempts by the Israeli state to impose a still more brutal occupation regime.

Armed colonial settlers have been allowed to run rampage in the occupied West Bank, torching the town of Huwara, and in doing so receiving encouragement from government ministers, one of whom has chillingly called for the state to launch more pogroms against Palestinian towns and villages.

As the international community turns a blind eye or acquiesce in the occupation and as Arab regimes seek to normalise relations with Israel, the brutality against Palestinians in their homeland escalates with Israel continuing to expand its settlements, seizing more Palestinian land, demolishing Palestinian homes and assassinating or maiming anyone who gets in the way.

In the Gaza Strip, two million Palestinians continue to be besieged, crammed into a slither of land just 140 square miles in size, with no access in or out. Israel routinely bombs the densely populated Strip without any regard for civilian wellbeing. Unemployment in Gaza stands at 46%. some 97% of the water in Gaza is contaminated making it the single biggest killer of children in the region.

This year’s rally takes place against a backdrop of increasing numbers of human rights organisations designating the Zionist state as an apartheid state, both in its treatment of Palestinians living inside the 1948 borders of Israel and those subject to occupation and blockade in the West Bank and Gaza. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories and Israeli group B’Tselem are mong the many authorities that have classified Israel as an apartheid regime. Apartheid is a political system based on racial domination.

The Al-Quds Day rally also takes place against the backdrop of intensified efforts by supporters of the Zionist regime to cancel voices supportive of Palestine from popular and political culture. All over the world, many pro-Palestine individuals and organisations have been subjected to mud-slinging and vilification to muffle their criticism of the Israeli state.

The Al-Quds Day demo has taken place in London for over 40 years without a single arrest. This year’s event (https://www.ihrc.org.uk/international-al-quds-day-2023-rally/) is scheduled for Sunday 16th April. Participants will assemble outside the Home Office (2 Marsham St, London SW1P 4DF) at 3pm, before marching to Downing Street, where they will hear speeches by prominent anti-apartheid guest speakers including:

1. Huda Ammouri –

Huda Ammouri is the co-founder of Palestine Action, the organisation whose direct action protests forced the closure of several sites belonging to the Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems in the UK.

2. Rev Dr Stephen Sizer –

Reverend Sizer is a retired priest in the Church of England and chair of both the Peacemaker Trust a Christian organisation which lobbies for the civil rights of religious minorities in the World, and of the Convivencia Alliance, a multifaith coalition of Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups. He who has written various books and articles debunking Christian Zionism. He has been part of a witchunt within the church due to his strong support the Palestinians.

3. Ahammed Hussain –

Ahammed is an activist with the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, a grassroots civil liberties lobby group who organise to actively fight Islamophobia in the UK for over 20 years.

4. Delia Mattis –

Delia Mattis is a leading Black Lives Matter activist, not only for here in London but across the UK. She is a leader in BLM Coalition which has BLM groups from Portsmouth to the Midlands. She was a leading organiser in the Kill the Bill movement which saw many thousands in over 50 cities across the UK protesting against the racist Tory government.

5. Ali Erkaslan –

Ali has organised politically with the Revolutionary Communist Group since 2007. The RCG stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their fight against Zionism and imperialism. For years the RCG has organised regular pickets of Marks and Spencer and other high street corporations and banks across Britain to highlight the role played by British imperialism in maintaining the Zionist state. Ali played a lead role in the RCG’s campaign to challenge the adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, used to shut down solidarity with Palestine, by Labour Party councils in 2019.

6. Massoud Shadjerah –

One of the founding members of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, the Convivencia Alliance and an organiser of the UK International Quds Day.

7. Les Levidow –

Member and organiser of Jewish Network for Palestine and The Convivencia Alliance

8. Richard Medhurst –

Syrian-British Independent journalist who specialises in the Middle East

9. Luwezi Kinshasa –

the Coordinator of International Campaign for Hands Off Uhuru! Hands Off Africa! to stop the US colonial state and ruling class from attacking our international African freedom movement!

10. Chris Williamson –

Chris Williamson is a former MP, who was suspended from the Labour Party for supporting Palestine

11. Jon Maxted –

A housing campaigner, trade unionist and Workers Party representative from Brighton.

12. Rabbi Ahron Cohen –

A Rabbi, who is part of Neturei Karta, a religious group of Haredi Jews who oppose Zionism

13. Mick Napier –

Mick is from the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Committee

14. Farrah Koutteineh –

Originally from and raised in Al-Quds, from one of the last Palestinian families in the old city of Jerusalem. She is also the founder of KEY48, a campaign calling for the immediate right of return of all Palestinian refugees, and a referendum amongst the global Palestinian community on the future of Palestine.

For more information or comment please contact 07958 522196 or media@ihrc.org [ENDS]

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IHRC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
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