Thousands of protestors are expected to turn out next month for a mass rally in London against the continued occupation of Palestine.

The annual Al-Quds Day rally will 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 dozens of innocent 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 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 an acquiescent blind eye to 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 assissinating or maiming anyone who gets in the way.

In the Gaza Strip, over 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 Israel an apartheid state, both in terms of 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 among 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 Zionist 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.

IHRC chair Massoud Shadjareh said: “As victims of apartheid, Palestinians deserve our support at the best of times, but even more so under the current oppressive, barbaric and extreme regime. It is the duty of all those who believe in justice and peace to come out and show their solidarity with the people of Palestine.”