PRESS RELEASE:

Preparations for this year’s Al-Quds Day have seen a massive ramp up with over a hundred organisations coming on board to support the first ever event to be taking place under conditions of lockdown.

The unprecedented number cover the entire spectrum of society and include civil society activists, Jewish anti-Zionists and human rights groups, from every continent.

Despite the lockdowns prevailing around the world as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the annual event on 22nd May promises to be as popular and boisterous as ever.

This year Al-Quds Day coincides with the anniversary of the Nakba or the “catastrophe”, the name given to the forced expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 to make way for the creation of the Zionist state. This year the anniversary is on 15th May.

The call for people to fly a Palestinian flag in their window or on their car for the last 10 days of Ramadan to show their support for the people of Palestine has got off to a flying, if early, start with supporters challenging each other to display them in the most daring places, with lots of pictures showing up on social media.

IHRC has also asked people to share art and poetry from Palestine using social media and has made a list of suggestions available on our website.

International Al-Quds Day became a fixture in the Muslim and non-Muslim calendar in 1979 when Imam Khomeini set aside the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to remember Palestine.

Each year, millions of people join rallies in cities around the world to voice their support for the Palestinians and repeat their call for an end to the Zionist regime’s atrocities and occupation of Palestine.

As the Coronavirus rips through countries everywhere, nowhere is the disease likely to be more keenly felt than in Palestine, particularly in Gaza, where millions of people live cheek by jowl in one of the most crowded places on earth.

Their suffering is amplified by Israel’s weaponisation of Covid-19 to prevent the entry of much needed medical equipment into Palestine and the passage of Palestinians across checkpoints to access health care in Israel or outside

IHRC chair Massoud Shadjareh said: “Every year we go out in our millions but even though we have to have to stay at home this year it will not stop us from standing up for justice for Palestine. We may be forced to isolate physically but our hearts will never be isolated from the oppressed in Palestine.”

For more information or comment please contact the Press Office on (+44) 20 8904 4222 or (+44) 7958522196[ENDS]

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