An Iranian woman embraces a small coffin to denounce the Israeli massacres against the children of Gaza (Al Jazeera)

Tehran -

Like every year, today, Friday, hundreds of thousands of Iranians participated in “International Jerusalem Day” marches, raising Iranian and Palestinian flags and the flags of resistance movements allied with Tehran, amid chants of “Death to Israel and America. We are not neutral in the battle of right and wrong, and we long to confront Israel.”

These scenes may not be new to Iranians who have become accustomed to participating in annual marches in support of the Palestinian cause since the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, just 4 months after the victory of the 1979 revolution, called on Muslims to commemorate Al-Quds Day on the last Friday of the month of Ramadan.

But regional developments turned the occasion into an event of utmost importance for Tehran.

Pictures of victims of the Israeli bombing on the resistance axis present at Jerusalem Day activities in Tehran (Al Jazeera)

Popular demands

In addition to the massacres committed by the occupation over a period of 6 months against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem Day 2024 comes 4 days after the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate building in Damascus and the killing of two senior commanders in the Revolutionary Guard and 5 other military advisors.

Al Jazeera Net interviewed a number of participants in the Jerusalem Day marches in the capital, Tehran, and their demands from their country’s authorities regarding Israel varied between condemnation in the courts and international circles and a direct response after the Iranian consulate building in Damascus was targeted. However, they agree on “the necessity of contributing to the liberation of the first two qiblahs with all the strength of the Islamic Revolution.”

On “Islamic Revolution” Street, where “Ferdowsi Square” is located in central Tehran, Haj Hamid Reza (72 years old) recalls “the absolute Western support for the occupying enemy since the Balfour Declaration in 1917, then arming the Haganah organization, covering up the war crimes it committed in Palestine, and rushing to recognize the formation of the entity.” Zionist in the United Nations.

He stressed in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net that "only iron can evade iron, and that Al-Aqsa Mosque will be liberated with iron arms, because what is occupied by force will not be liberated without it."

As for Hajja Batoul (61 years old), she told Al Jazeera Net that she "does not see a solution to the Palestinian issue without removing Israel from the map because the occupation only thinks about eliminating the Islamic Republic and occupying the lands of Islamic countries."

She stressed that Iranian blood was mixed with Palestinian blood in defense of Holy Jerusalem, and that the Israeli attacks on Iranian targets in Syria and the massacres in Gaza will not bring the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an important achievement so that he can pretend victory, saying, “The bird is dancing slaughtered in pain.”

Participants in the Jerusalem Day marches in Tehran raised banners of “Death to Israel and America” (Al Jazeera)

Deterrence factor

Meanwhile, the young man, Mahran (24 years old), considered that the Israeli bombing of the consulate put his country on the eve of Jerusalem Day before “the duality of revenge and avoiding escalation.”

In his interview with Al Jazeera Net, he believed that “transforming Tehran into a nuclear capability is a deterrent factor that will put an end to the Zionist-American arrogance towards Iran on the one hand, and support Al-Aqsa Mosque on the other hand.”

After Iranians, in annual marches over the past decades, continued to demand support for the Palestinian cause and denounce the crimes of the occupation against the Palestinian people, Israeli attacks on Iranian interests in Syria occupied a large part of the chants on Jerusalem Day 2024, which demanded revenge.

On the sidelines of the funeral of the participants in the Jerusalem marches in Tehran for the victims of the attack on the consulate, strategic researcher Alireza Taghavinia explained that Jerusalem Day “is upon us this year at a time when Israel sees itself involved in the longest war it has been waging for half a year, during which it committed the most heinous crimes and incurred the largest number of casualties.” Victims."

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, the Iranian researcher points out “the lack of hopes of the Zionists in achieving victory in the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood.”

He says that by Jerusalem Day, “Tel Aviv is closer to the challenge of disappearance than ever before, as hundreds of thousands of settlers flee the towns bordering the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, not to mention the increase in reverse migration from the occupying entity and the intensification of people’s pressure on Western regimes due to their politicians’ support for the Israeli killing machine in Gaza".

He considered "the widespread presence of Iranians in the funeral of the bodies of the victims of the consulate attack as a popular referendum on how to respond to the Israeli violations and support the blessed Al-Aqsa," stressing that the activities of Jerusalem Day this year bring the Palestinian issue back to the forefront of global issues and remind us of the necessity of putting an end to the tragedy of Palestine.

Flags and symbols of the resistance movements flutter in the Quds Day marches in Tehran (Al Jazeera)

The effectiveness of the resistance option

For his part, Secretary of the Political Committee of the Society for the Defense of the Palestinian People, Ahmed Reda Ruhollah Zad, read the activities of Jerusalem Day 2024 in the context of “the Al-Aqsa Flood Battle, which constituted a turning point in the history of the conflict with the Zionist enemy.”

In his statement to Al Jazeera Net, Zad saw "the large popular participation in the activities of International Al-Quds Day as a tribute and support for the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood and for the vision of Imam Khomeini, who drew - more than 4 decades ago - the map for liberating Al-Quds Al-Sharif."

He explained that the results of the current battle with Israel continue to be different from all the wars fought by “global Zionism” that led to the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire and the occupation of Palestinian lands.

He concluded that "the Zionist entity has not reached the point of weakness and isolation that it has reached by Jerusalem Day 2024, which confirms the effectiveness of the resistance option and the fragility of the entity's theory of deterrence."

On the eve of International Jerusalem Day, Iranian tweeters interacted on social media platforms about nuclear deterrence, between those who believe that the Israeli nuclear arsenal did not prevent the events of October 7, 2023, and others who see the prohibition of manufacturing an atomic bomb as a factor in Israel’s persistence in targeting Iranian interests in Syria.

Under the hashtags “atomic bomb” and “nuclear Iran,” Iranian tweeters called for the manufacture of at least one bomb.

On the other hand, strategic researcher Ali Reza Taghavi Nia saw his country reaching “a stage where it can manufacture the bomb anytime it wants as a deterrent factor in the face of Israeli and American intransigence, instead of manufacturing it because it is forbidden according to Islamic law.”

Source: Al Jazeera