Quds Day

Quds Day
Quds Day 2014 in Berlin
Observed by	Iran, and other countries and communities
Type	Ideological
Significance	Demonstrations against the existence of Israel, and its control of Jerusalem; solidarity with the Palestinian people
Begins	Last Friday of Ramadan
2016 date	July 1
Frequency	annual
Related to	Anti-Zionism New Antisemitism

Quds Day (Jerusalem Day; is the Arabic name for Jerusalem), officially called International Quds Day (Persian: روز جهانی قدس‎‎), is an annual event held on the last Friday of Ramadan that was initiated by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 to express support for the Palestinians and oppose Zionism and Israel's existence, as well as Israel's control of Jerusalem. Nominally, it exists in opposition to the Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushalayim) celebration instituted by Israel in May 1968, and which Knesset law changed into a national holiday in 1998. In Iran, the government sponsors and organizes the day's rallies, and its celebration in that country has had, down to at least 2012, a decade-long tradition of voicing anti-Semitic attacks. Quds Day is also held in several other countries, mainly in the Arab and Muslim world, with protests against Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem.Rallies are held in verious cities by both Muslim and non-Muslim communities around the world.

An annual anti-Zionist day of protest was first suggested by Ebrahim Yazdi, the first foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and a liberal, to the leader of the Iranian Revolution, Ruhollah Khomeini. The context was one of deepening tensions between Israel and Lebanon at the time. Khomeini took over unacknowledged Yazdi's idea, and on August 7, 1979, he declared the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan each year as Quds Day, in which Muslims worldwide would unite in solidarity against Israel and in support of the Palestinians. Khomeini declared the "liberation" of Jerusalem a religious duty to all Muslims. That day, he stated: