Al Quds Day march 2024: Counter-protesters 'won't hide and won't be silent'

Members of the Jewish community and their allies have planned a counter-protest against the anti-Israel Al Quds Day march scheduled to take place in London tomorrow.

The organisers of the counter-demonstration, described as a “collective of concerned British residents and citizens of all faiths,” will protest the annual pro-Palestine and anti-Zionist Al Quds Day march, which originated in Iran and has frequently served as an expression of solidarity with terror groups supported by the Islamic Republic.

Commenting on the event – which is branded this year as a “National Demonstration for Palestine” – counter-protest organiser Itai Galmudy liked it to the anti-Israel marches that have taken place in London over the past six months.

"It’s the same money funding them, it’s the same fundamental jihadist sentiment, and they try to achieve the same thing, which is spreading hate and anti-Israeli bias, all funded by Iran. It’s not a secret; it’s been going on for 40 years,” he said.

The controversial event, which always takes place on the last Friday of Ramadan, will commence outside the Home Office at 3pm.

Speakers scheduled to address the demonstrators include former Church of England vicar Stephen Sizer, who has previously admitted sharing a post online that suggested Israel was behind 9/11; anti-Zionist former University of Bristol professor David Miller; and the former Labour MP Chris Williamson, who is now a deputy leader of George Galloways’ Workers Party of Britain.

Galmudy said that while there are always safety concerns when it comes to confronting anti-Israel protesters, “we won’t hide and we won’t be silenced”.

He continued: "We expect the police to fully uphold that right on Friday and that any interventions will be to ensure that our peaceful right of protest is not interfered with by hateful speech, intimidation, or violence.”

He expects some 300-400 people to attend the counter-protest, the exact location will be published on the group’s Instagram page, enough_is_enough_ldn, tonight.

A spokesperson for CST said the Al Quds Day march is "inspired by the government of Iran, with all the extremism and antisemitism that entails”.

“It is a march predicated on anti-Israel hate, expressed through calls for Israel to be erased from the map, and in the past regularly featured Hezbollah flags until that terror group was banned. That gives an indication of the nature of this event and we can expect similar kinds of extremism this year.”

The Metropolitan Police have faced calls to ban the annual event, which in previous years has seen demands for Israel’s destruction and overt support for proscribed terrorist groups. Lord Walney, the government’s adviser on political violence, warned it could provoke “serious disorder” and fan the flames of antisemitism.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said: “This year, the march comes amidst weekly anti-Israel protests featuring analogies of Israel to Nazis and other antisemitic signs, calls for violent Intifada, support for Houthi attacks on British vessels and glorification of Hamas terrorism. All this takes place under the watch of Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, who has the distinction of presiding over the worst surge in antisemitic criminality in our capital city since records began.”

CAA representatives will attend and observe the march and “will take action against participants who break the law,” they added.

“While we will be doing our job, it remains to be seen whether the Met will do theirs."