The Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG) condemns the ban imposed by the Metropolitan Police on the annual London Al Quds march, and the restriction of the protest on Sunday 15 March to a two-hour static demonstration on the south side of the River Thames. This is an assault on the rights of everyone who stands up for the Palestinian people and against the imperialist war on Iran, as well as an attack on our democratic right to protest in Britain’s capital city.
Quds (Jerusalem) Day demonstrations have taken place at the end of Ramadan since 1979. Originating in Iran after the revolution that removed the despotic Shah from power, the pro-Palestinian event became internationally marked. In London there has been an Al Quds march for over 40 years. Comrades from our organisation have regularly attended, in recent years adding our name to the sponsors of the event and speaking from the platform. We will do this again this year.
The ban on the Al Quds march was heavily lobbied for by Zionist organisations. This is not new. The virulent UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has been campaigning for the banning of the protest or the arrest of its attendees for hate crime and alleged encouragement for terrorism since its inception in 2016. Since the start of the Zionist genocide on Gaza in 2023, ULKFI and other groups have attacked even the most ineffectual of pro-Palestine protests, labelling them ‘antisemitic hate marches’ and calling on the government and police to ban or severely restrict them. The effectiveness of this lobbying has been felt across the pro-Palestine movement in myriad ways, from the arrests under the Terrorism Act of our SOAS 2 comrades and others for speaking in solidarity with the Palestinian armed resistance to the proscription of direct-action group Palestine Action and the subsequent arrest of thousands of people simply for holding placards bearing the group’s name. Despite the official Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) bending over backwards to liaise with the police and to keep its protests focused on lamenting Palestinian victimhood, rather than supporting Palestinian resistance, it too has been subject to the imposition of draconian police restrictions, as demanded by Zionists, with leading PSC members Ben Jamal and Chris Nineham currently on trial for allegedly flouting a Public Order Act condition imposed on a protest in January 2025.
While Zionist groups agitate constantly for increased restrictions on all pro-Palestine protests, and this is sympathetically lapped up by the pro-Israel Labour government, the Al Quds protest enrages them to a particular level of hatred. Although the protest is attended by people of many religious faiths and none, that it has historical ties to Iran and particularly mobilises from the Shia Muslim community has led opponents to label it not only as antisemitic, but as pro-Hezbollah, predicated on the ties between the Iranian government and the Lebanon-based resistance movement. Counter-protests to Al Quds have taken place for many years, populated largely by Zionists, with support from British right wingers, alongside a sprinkling of Iranian reactionaries.
This year, the march takes place against the backdrop of the US and Israel’s murderous bombardment of Iran, aided and abetted by the imperialist British government. In attacking the Al Quds march, the warmongering Labour Party is clearly attempting to clamp down on opposition to its role in this illegal war. The tone for this was set by Courts Minister Sarah Sackman, who told radio interviewers on 10 March that the protest was ‘un-British’ and ‘shouldn’t be on the streets of London’.
On 11 March, after Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood invited the police to ban the march, the Met issued a statement making clear that its decision to do so was based on ‘the volatile situation in the Middle East, with the Iranian regime attacking British allies and military bases overseas’. This is political policing.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission, who are the main organisers of the Quds Day march in London are contesting the ban via a legal challenge, while going ahead with the enforced limited static protest on Sunday 15 March. Their appeal for funds for the challenge can be found here: www.ihrc.org.uk/defend-the-right-to-protest-on-al-quds-day/
Defend the right to demonstrate for Palestine!
