EXTREMISMFrom Dearborn to NYC, Quds Day Protesters Praise Terrorists, Denounce the U.S. and Call for the Destruction of Israel

Over the weekend of April 5, 2024, anti-Israel activists in the US and around the world marked Al Quds Day (“Jerusalem Day”) with protests and other events against Zionism and the state of Israel. This annual event, originally conceived by the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, serves as a platform for support for terrorism and other violence against Israel and regularly includes virulent antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric.  

This year’s Quds Day protests — which came nearly six months into the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas that was triggered by the Palestinian terror group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel — were no different.  

As they have done consistently over the last six months, anti-Israel protesters at Quds Day events across the US repeatedly characterized the violent actions of Hamas and other US-designated terrorist groups like Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Houthis (Ansar Allah) not as condemnable terrorism, but as admirable so-called “resistance.” In their speeches, chants, and signs, protestors called for Israel’s destruction and an end to Zionism. By engaging in this rhetoric, protesters also effectively vilified the vast majority of American Jews who view a connection to Israel as an important part of their Jewish identity. 

Al Quds protests in Dearborn, MI and New York, NY were particularly notable for their size and the concerning, violent nature of the rhetoric used by speakers and attendees. Protesters in numerous other cities also expressed similarly problematic sentiments. 

Dearborn Protesters Sing the Praises of Terrorists and Call for “Death” to Israel and America 
At a Quds Day demonstration that attracted hundreds of attendees outside the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn, MI on April 5, protesters chanted, in Arabic, “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.” A protester proudly displayed an image of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini while others held signs with messages that included “The Zionist entity has no right to exist” and “From the river to the sea! Expel all occupiers.”