List of Quds Day demonstrations
This article contains a list of Quds Day demonstrations around world.
1980s
On Quds Day 1985, amid the "war of the cities" of the Iran–Iraq War, Iraqi bombers and long-range missiles struck 14 cities, reportedly killing at least 78 people and wounding 326. According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, the sound of the exploding bombs and missiles in Tehran was drowned out by the crowds chanting "War, war until victory 3/8."On Quds Day 1987, held shortly after the outbreak of the First Intifada, effigies of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Israeli leaders were burned in Iran "as a sign of Moslem nations' revolutionary wrath against Zionism, imperialism and apartheid." In Tehran, President Ali Khamenei said the Palestinians "should resist and fight Zionism. This is the message of the whole Iranian people who chant the 'Death to Israel' slogan."
On Quds Day 1989, Iranian parliament speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani said that Palestinians should kill Americans and other Westerners in retaliation for attacks by the Israeli military in the occupied territories: "If in retaliation for every Palestinian martyred in Palestine they will kill and execute, not inside Palestine, five Americans or Britons or Frenchmen, they could not continue these wrongs. It is not hard to kill Americans or Frenchman. It is a bit difficult to kill. But there are so many everywhere in the world."
1990s
Fearing an Israeli military strike, Hezbollah cancelled its annual Quds Day rallies in 1992 for the first time in the group's history. 10 days earlier, a suicide bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina destroyed the Israeli embassy there and killed 29 people injured 242 others. Hezbollah was implicated in the attack.In 1994, Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani told demonstrators, "Can Israel really remain? In my opinion it cannot. That artificial entity cannot survive."
In 1998, former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani stated that Israel's crimes against the Palestinians exceeded those of Adolf Hitler against the Jews. He added, "The Zionist regime is a fake government and homeland which is shaped with millions of homeless Palestinians and hundreds of thousands of Muslim martyrs... I'm sure that in the future we will have Islamic Palestine. I'm sure nothing will remain as the territory of Israel."
In 1999, a reported three million people attended Quds Day rallies in Iran. In Tehran, a resolution was read aloud calling for struggle "until the aggressor Zionist regime is annihilated." Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri told worshipers at Friday prayers, "There is no country named Israel. There is Palestine, and the thieves who have occupied the houses of Palestinians should be removed from those houses." In Beirut, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah told thousands of supporters, "On Al-Quds Day, I reaffirm to you that Israel will be eliminated one day, God willing." At the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, protesters carried a banner that read "America is the enemy of God."
2000–2008
Over one million people, with over 100,000 in each of Iran's eight largest cities, marched in the 2005 Quds Day protests in Tehran and other cities across Iran. Protests were staged throughout the Middle East and the wider Arab World, with over 30,000 Bahrainis marching in Manama, and 6,000 Hezbollah volunteers marching in Beirut.In 2006, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened any country that supports Israel, and said the U.S. and its allies had "imposed a group of terrorists" on the region with their support of the Jewish state. He added that Israel no longer had any reason to exist and would soon disappear: "This regime, thanks to God, has lost the reason for its existence. Efforts to stabilize this fake regime, by the grace of God, have completely failed... You should believe that this regime is disappearing."
That year, Hezbollah did not organize a mass rally for Quds Day, stating it was unnecessary because it had recently held a demonstration on September 22 to celebrate what it declared to be its "victory" over Israel in that summer's conflict. In the place of a mass event, the day was commemorated with an "invitation-only event in a concert hall featured an orchestra, a choir and several anti-Israel speeches."
The 2007 Quds Day protest saw millions of Iranians march in support of the Palestinians. During the rallies in Tehran, President Ahmadinejad said that the "creation, continued existence and unlimited support for this regime is an insult to human dignity." The protests also featured signs denouncing the U.S. government for its support of Israel. Over 3,000 people marched in Damascus carrying Palestinian flags. Hezbollah organized marches in the city's Yarmouk refugee camp.
2009 Quds Day
Supporters of Iranian opposition groups used the 2009 Quds Day to stage protests against President Ahmadinejad and the Iranian government in response to the disputed 2009 Iranian presidential election. Estimates put the opposition protest in the tens of thousands, with participants shouting slogans in support of former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the candidate who received the most votes in the presidential elections. Rejecting the government's support of Palestinian militancy, opposition protesters chanted, "No to Gaza and Lebanon, I will give my life for Iran." There were reports of similar protests in Isfahan, Tabriz, Yazd and Shiraz.Iranian state TV played down the unrest. Independent sources estimated "tens of thousands" to over 100,000 in Tehran, many of them bused in by the government. At least ten anti-government protesters were arrested during the demonstrations. An angry crowd of Ahmadinejad supporters attacked Mousavi's car while shouting "Death to the hypocrite Mousavi." In other cities Basiji militiamen attacked protesters.
As he has done on previous such occasions, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked intense criticism and condemnation from Western governments in particular. He stated, "The pretext for the creation of the Zionist regime is false... It is a lie based on an unprovable and mythical claim." His statements drew immediate condemnation from the governments of the United States, Russia, and the European Union.
In Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, used the occasion to call for popular resistance to replace the regimes in the Middle East with regimes that are 'convinced of war in order to send their armies to war.'
2010 Quds Day
At the 2010 Quds Day rally in Tehran, Iranian President Ahmadinejad again predicted the demise of Israel, stating, "If the leaders of the region do not have the guts, then the people of the region are capable of removing the Zionist regime from the world scene." He dismissed any Israeli military threat to Iran's nuclear program, declaring, "The Zionist regime is nothing and even its masters are too small to conduct any kind of aggression against Iran and the rights of the Iranian people." Ahmadinejad also proclaimed new peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians as "stillborn and doomed." The tens of thousands of Iranians participating in the rallies continued the regular chants of "Death to America! Death to Israel!" The day before the rallies, Ayatollah Khamenei tweeted, "Israel Is A Hideous Entity In the Middle East Which Will Undoubtedly Be Annihilated."In Lebanon, the day after the resumption of direct peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah secretary-general, declared that:
Our nation cannot ignore and forget this cause because it is part of our religion, our religious commitment, our culture, our civilization, our morals and values and our past history.... No one has the right to give up one span of its land, one grain of its sacred sand, one drop of its water, or one letter of its name. Al Quds Day is the day for announcing this ideological, legal, historic true constant position. On this day we make the announcement that neither al-Quds nor even one of its streets nor even a neighbourhood of its neighbourhoods – and not only all of al-Quds -may be an eternal capital for the so-called state of Israel. Al Quds is the capital of Palestine, and as we have said in the past, it is the capital of earth and the capital of heaven one way or another.'
In Quetta, Pakistan, a suicide bomber attacked Pakistani Shias holding a Quds Day rally. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed at least 65 people and wounded 160.
2012 Quds Day
On August 17, 2012, millions of Iranians commemorated al-Quds Day, where they waved Palestinian flags, chanted "Death to Israel and America," and burned Israeli and American flags. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called to destroy Israel, which he termed an "insult to all humanity" and called to remove the "Zionist black stain." Ahmadinejad said that "the Zionist regime is a tool to dominate the Middle East," as well as that world powers are “thirsty for Iranian blood." Ahmadinejad stated that "The Zionist regime and the Zionists are a cancerous tumour. Even if one cell of them is left in one inch of land, in the future this story will repeat." He further stated that "The nations of the region will soon finish off the usurper Zionists in the Palestinian land.... A new Middle East will definitely be formed. With the grace of God and help of the nations, in the new Middle East there will be no trace of the Americans and Zionist."In Lebanon, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah stated in a televised speech that, in the eventuality of a future Israeli attack on Lebanon, only a few rockets fired by the group's militia could cause massive casualties, given its well-planned target list, explaining that:
Hundreds of people turned out in Gaza to protest the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem. A spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said "We are committed to the right of return and to liberation of prisoners and resistance against the occupation as long as it is on our land". In Bahrain, dozens took part in the protests, which were dispersed by security forces' tear gas.
Labour Party politician Jeremy Corbyn attended the London rally, which was supported by the Stop the War Coalition. He was photographed coincidentally standing near Hezbollah flags, for which he was criticised on social media.