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Hezbollah Flags, Speech Calling for Israel to be “Wiped from the Map,” Mark London’s Quds Day March

by TheTower.org Staff |

Flags of the Iranian-backed, Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah were waved at Sunday’s annual Al-Quds march in central London, where one speaker said Israel should be “wiped from the map,” The Jewish Chronicle reported.

Addressing the crowd, Shaikh Mohammad Saeed Bahmanpour vowed that Zionists’ “days are numbered.” Nazim Hussein Ali, who charged last year that there was a connection between the Grenfell Tower fire in London and “Zionists,” once again led the march.

Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters chanted “free, free Palestine” beneath the yellow flag which is adorned with an automatic gun. Some wore badges which read “Free Palestine Boycott Israel.” Their banners said, “End The Killing, End Israeli Apartheid” and “Stop Gaza Genocide.”

In between the speeches, protesters burned the Israeli flag.

London police had confirmed earlier this month that they would not stop protesters from flying the Hezbollah flag. London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, had called on the Home Office to ban the organization’s flags, however because Britain only designated Hezbollah’s military wing as a terrorist organization, authorities said they had no legal ground.

Hendon MP Matthew Offord said: “We should not have to be here on the streets of London protesting against a terrorist flag.” He added: “We hear there are two wings to Hezbollah, the political wing and the military wing. There is not.”

Some 200 counter-protesters yelled “the hate-filled flag of Hezbollah has no place in London”. Some held banners which read, “Standing United Against Terror” and “Terrorist Flags Off Our Streets”. Pro-Israel marchers also stood behind a blue and white placard which said, “Free Gaza from Hamas” and waved banners with the names of people murdered by Hezbollah.

Fiona Sharpe, the co-founder of Sussex Friends of Israel, told The Jewish Chronicle: “Flying of the Hezbollah flag crosses the line – Hezbollah being a known terrorist organisation. It’s a threat to us all, not just the Jewish community. She continued: “We wouldn’t want to see the flying of an Isis flag on the streets of London. I don’t think it’s appropriate to fly the Hezbollah flag.”

Al-Quds Day was initiated by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 to oppose Zionism and the existence of the Jewish State. Annual marches are held across the world and are a gathering place for anti-Semitic activists and terrorist supporters.

In her commentary on last year’s Quds Day rally in London, Julie Lenarz, senior fellow at The Israel Project, criticized London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who allowed the march to proceed despite his promises not to tolerate anti-Semitism, observing that “while Hezbollah sympathizers marched through the streets without interruption, police demanded that anti-terrorist protesters move out of the way. The extremists were rewarded. The terrified public punished. Evidence of a truly broken moral compass.”

[Photo: ActForIsrael / Twitter]

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