Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Al Quds Day March in London meets opposition

Peter marshall | 28.09.2008 21:45 | Palestine | Repression | London

Several thousand demonstrators marched through London on Sunday 28 September to celebrate Al Quds (Jerusalem) Day and support oppressed people across the world and particularly the Lebanese and Palestinian people. Counter-demonstrators gathered at Piccadilly Circus to oppose the march.
Pictures © 2008, Peter Marshall, all rights reserved.

Neturei Karta rabbi at front of the march
Neturei Karta rabbi at front of the march

Marchers on Park Lane
Marchers on Park Lane

Waving banners at the counter demonstrators
Waving banners at the counter demonstrators

Whose Side are we on? It seemed a good question
Whose Side are we on? It seemed a good question

U B A next to Israeli flags
U B A next to Israeli flags

Police grab Iranian demonstrator who tried to climb barrier
Police grab Iranian demonstrator who tried to climb barrier

U B A shout at marchers
U B A shout at marchers

Police restrained marchers behind the tape
Police restrained marchers behind the tape

UBA gestures at the marchers
UBA gestures at the marchers

Marchers ignore the counter demo
Marchers ignore the counter demo

Marching on to the rally
Marching on to the rally


The annual Al Quds Day march is supported by Crescent International, FOSIS, Friends of Al Aqsa, Friends Of Lebanon, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Innovative Minds, Islamic Centre of England, Islamic Human Rights Commission, Muslim Council of Britain, Neturei Karta, Palestine Internationalist, Palestine Return Centre, Respect Party and Stop the War.

Among those groups demonstrating against it were the United British Alliance, March for Enlgand, International Alliance of Iranian Students, the Worker Communist Party of Iran, Workers Liberty and a group waving Israeli flags (apologies to any other groups I missed.)

The opposition from some of these comes from the fact that Al Quds Day was started by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, that some of the organisations that support it receive support from the Iranian government and that it supports the Islamic regime in Iran. Others oppose it for very different reasons.

I've no sympathy for the Iranian regime under which friends of mine have suffered and which has brought a proud and historic civilisation to a fundamentalist authoritarian terror state. Nor for that matter am I an unquestioning supporter of Hezbollah. But despite my misgivings about Iran, I marched with the Muslims, orthodox Neturei Karta rabbis and others. Perhaps it would be better for those wanting to protest against Iranian involvement of the event to organise an Al Quds Day event with wider participation to show support for the Palestinian cause as well as freedom in Iran.

There has to be a better way to demonstrate opposition to the Iranian regime and also support for the Palestinian people rather than joining with other groups who clearly do not do so. The United British Alliance were possibly the largest and certainly the most vociferous group opposing the march.

The marchers remained proudly defiant in the face of the insults flung at them across the road from the various groups, and stewards had some problems in keeping a few of the younger and more militant marchers moving, but unlike last year there were no serious attempts to rush across the street, though police did push back a few. At one point I found myself pushed out from the march by some of the militants, which provided me with a better vantage point until I was pushed back by the police! One supporter of freedom in Iran attempted to climb over the barrier towards the march and was quickly surrounded by police.

I left the march before the rally in Trafalgar Square to attend another demonstration. Speakers were expected to include Dawud Abdullah, Les Levidow, Massoud Shadjareh, Rabbi Ahron Cohen, Taji Mustafa and Yvonne Ridley.

More pictures from the march on My London Diary  http://mylondondiary.co.uk shortly.

Peter marshall
- e-mail: petermarshall@cix.co.uk
- Homepage: http://mylondondiary.co.uk

Comments

Display the following 10 comments

  1. Who are UBA? — Rod
  2. Re: Who are UBA? — chopped pork
  3. STERN GANG — JIMBOB
  4. A strange alliance — Davos
  5. . — @nti zionist
  6. my enemies enemy is not my friend — Davos
  7. @Davos — Ashley
  8. @Davos — Ashley
  9. Happy Jerusalem Day — In solidarity with others in struggle.
  10. Ashley... — Davos
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech