Quds Day in London: Thousands of Pro-Palestinian protesters march amid anti-Israel chants, placards

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters take part at a demonstration on Quds Day, in London, April 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters take part at a demonstration on Quds Day, in London, April 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Thousands of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters gathered in central London yesterday to mark Quds (Jerusalem) Day and call for a ceasefire in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Anti-Israel chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” could be heard at the protest, along with placards calling Israel and its allies “Zionist dogs,” according to a report in UK publication The Jewish Chronicle.

Posts on social media also lauded the participation of the members of the fringe anti-Zionist, ultra-Orthodox sect Neturei Karta at the rally, with one man from the group reportedly arrested for burning a replica of an Israeli flag.

Neturei Karta opposes the modern State of Israel on religious grounds and regularly protests against the Jewish state; its members have met with Holocaust deniers and leaders of the Iranian government in the past.

Nearby, dozens of demonstrators held a smaller counter-protest calling for the release of over 100 hostages held by terror groups in Gaza since they were kidnapped during Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

Quds Day is an Iran-sponsored day of support for Palestinians marked on the last Friday of Ramadan each year since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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