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Quds Day – Not a “One-Day” Event but Part of Global Movement to Free Palestine 

By Iqbal Jassat 

 As many parts of the world gets ready to mark the occasion of Quds Day this Ramadan, Palestinians in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank are reliving the horrors of the Nakba.

The brutality of war criminals heading the settler colonial regime’s genocide and ethnic cleansing backed by an equally ruthless US administration, will in all likelihood define public anger at this annual event.

Quds Day has its roots in Iran when the visionary leadership of the Islamic Revolution under Imam Khomeini (RA), mobilised human and civil rights activists across the globe to dedicate the last Friday of Ramadan to Palestine.

More than four decades later commemorations during this day have grown in numbers. 

More importantly, sectarianism which historically has been associated with “divide and rule” policies of the British Raj, has receded dramatically, thanks to the wisdom and foresight of Iran’s people and leaders. 

Quds Day which commenced shortly after the fall of America’s Tehran-based “Peacock Throne” during 1979, has seen unprecedented growth of solidarity for Palestine’s freedom struggle against Zionism’s illegal settler colonial regime. 

In addition, it has succeeded in remaining an iron clad pillar of Iran’s foreign policy – earning the wrath of Israel but respect and admiration of the Palestinian people and their global supporters. 

What is lesser known is that during the notorious era of the self-imposed Pahlavi Dynasty, the American empire had full control of it. Via a pliant Shah, the US enjoyed privileges to the point of being legally untouchable, while such rights and freedoms were denied to Iranian people. 

The repression met its response when Imam Khomeini opposed it, sparking a movement that culminated in the Islamic Revolution. 

Palestinians who have endured decades of Zionist occupation and barbaric state-terrorism, are subject to horrors worse than those of the ex-Shah and of the old South African apartheid regime. 

The period following the historic revolutionary changes in Iran – before the formation of Hamas – was dominated by Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) which he led. 

An iconic picture of Arafat and Imam Khomeini at the time the newly independent Islamic Republic was undergoing early phases of its establishment, signified the ruptorous break in ties with the Zionist regime. 

Instead of the Israeli flag at its embassy in Tehran, Iran’s revolutionary leadership handed the premises over to Arafat and the PLO – from which the flag of Palestine was hoisted. 

Far from being a symbolic gesture which extended also to a total break with South Africa’s apartheid regime, Iran chose the path to liberation of Al Quds, to which it remains firmly and totally committed. 

To the utter shame of the Arab world whose unelected leaders stand aside while Palestinians in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank are facing a calculated and deliberate US/Israeli policy of annihilation, Iran has not given up. 

Palestine’s Resistance movements from Hamas to Islamic Jihad, as well as the axis of resistance stretching across Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, are deeply indebted to the only Muslim country that at great cost has not sacrificed its commitment. 

Quds Day is not meant to be an isolated one-day event of speeches. It is a manifestation of a movement that has inspired generations of youth to mobilise in every possible way to struggle against Zionism’s illegal colony. 

Mandla Mandela captured it well when he spoke at a solidarity event in Yemen a few days ago:

“This year we mobilise for the 46th International Al Quds Day. Despite the continued genocide in Gaza and all of Occupied Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, we continue unabated in our struggle and fight for peace and justice. Just as we fought for our freedom against white domination so too must we fight against domination by a minority of elitist and racist countries.”

Trump and Netanyahu may have cojoined to ethnically cleanse Palestinians with weapons and funds from the USA, UK, France and Germany, but as Mandela assured his audience in Sanaa,

“this evil, immoral, hateful, criminal apartheid state they call Israel cannot tame or extinguish the fire and hope of the Palestinians”.

Iqbal Jassat

Executive Member

Media Review Network

Johannesburg

South Africa

Iqbal Jassat
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