Andy Newman’s Socialist Unity blog is plugging this interesting demonstration…
The Al Quds Day Demonstration is a march in support of the Palestinian people and their rights, this year it will take place on Sunday 21st August from Portland Place (assemble near BBC Radio) at 2pm to Trafalgar Square. This rally is crucial in giving a voice to the destitute people of Palestine who have been under occupation for over 63 years!!!!!
Something about this paragraph aroused my suspicion. Yes, that’s right – multiple exclamation marks. Something else aroused my suspicions, though: the fact that Quds Day was established by that murderous theocrat the Ayatollah Khomeini.
Indeed, the page that Newman offers for more information bears this quote…
“The Quds Day is a universal day. It is not an exclusive day for Quds itself. It is a day for the oppressed to rise and stand up against the arrogant.” Imam Khomeini
Its “further resources” offer gems like this (under the heading Zionism – the Greatest Danger)…
The greatest evil facing the Muslim community (Ummah)and mankind today is not AIDS, Pollution, or Nuclear War. It is international Zionism. It is the Zionist greed for wealth, lust for perverted sex, greed for power, domination, and economic exploitation that is causing AIDS, POLLUTION as well as threatening NUCLEAR WAR.
Goodness, is there anything they won’t blame on Zionist greed? Peak Oil? The common cold? The Simpsons season 22?
Newman offers this selection of supporters…
Aloha Palestine
Friends of Al Aqsa
Friends of Lebanon
Innovative Minds
Islamic Centre of England
Islamic Forum of Europe
Islamic Students Association
Jews Against Zionism
Lebanese Community UK
London BDS
Muslim Association of Britain
Muslim Council Britain
Neturei Karta UK
Palestine Legal Aid Fund
Palestine Return Centre
Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Stop the War Coalition
UKIM
It’s especially pathetic to see Jews and leftists here – among paranoiacs who hate their semitic guts and Khomeinists who applaud a man who massacred their comrades. Leopold von Sacher-Masoch had nothing on them.
August 20, 2011 at 10:49 am
Khomeini It is a day for the oppressed to rise and stand up against the arrogant.
Proclaiming yourself a supreme authority on the mind of god always struck me as at least a little bit presumptuous.
August 20, 2011 at 1:13 pm
He was also the world’s most pompous literary critic. Yes, even more than Leon Wieseltier.
August 20, 2011 at 5:45 pm
So? Palestine’s an important cause. C’mon man, you’re not siding with Israel on this, are ya?
August 20, 2011 at 9:08 pm
The Al Quds Day Demonstration is a march in support of the Palestinian people and their rights
Fuckin’ excellent. The more marches and demonstrations like that the better.
August 20, 2011 at 9:45 pm
Jenny -
I can’t stand the Australian rugby team but I’ll be damned if I support France against them.
August 20, 2011 at 10:50 pm
Perhaps this look at Iranian policy might be informative.
August 20, 2011 at 11:27 pm
This is very worrying indeed because it reinforces the impression that Iran, which despite all its flaws has played a more progressive role in the region over the last decades than its rivals, is now blundering along a blind path on the wrong side of history…
As far as I’m aware Iran’s “role in the region” has consisted of supporting a succession of unpleasant groups and goading Israel. And I’m not sure what cause I have to doubt my “impression” that a state which executes a man for leaving his faith is “on the wrong side of history”.
I’m not trying to be all condemnatory here. I really don’t know what he means.
August 21, 2011 at 2:09 pm
While I met disagree with much of what Hamas and Hezbollah stand for, I still think that supporting them is far more progressive than the alternative.
You can also add the support Iran has given, largely rhetorical, to the oppressed and disenfranchised Shia in the Gulf states.
By the way, being aware that the Iranian regime massacred leftists does not come as news to anyone on the left. It is not a matter of saying my enemy’s enemy is my friend (for most), but seeing who the greater enemy is from their role in the world, not how individually barbaric they seem.
Perhaps Robin’s piece on Hezbollah will provide some clarity, or maybe it will just confuse further. Or this piece might help understand the oriental mind (he did used to live in East Oxford)
August 21, 2011 at 4:50 pm
There is an alternative to supporting Hamas or Israel. A third way, if you will. Supporting neither. If two forces are malign you should judge them on their individual merits inasmuch as you should see whether they, in all their malignancy, could be a force for good. And in these cases I don’t see how: Mr Yassin-Kassab applauds Hezbollah’s “victories against Zionism”. What has their conflict actually achieved? How do Hamas rockets help anybody? I’m not opposed to “resistance” qua “resistance” but it has to have a point. Futile violence is never “beautiful“.
August 22, 2011 at 2:08 pm
I think remaining neutral is to accept a status quo that I find intolerable.
They got the Israelis out of Lebanon.
They remind the Israelis that they are not invulnerable, though the lack of targeting , and the small payload means they aren’t that effective at anything, so yes to a war on pointlessness.
August 24, 2011 at 1:21 am
But this is the point. If an intervention does more harm than good it’s worse than useless.
How many years ago was that?
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