Berlin Bans Annual Quds Day March That Protests Israel

Meanwhile; Berlin has banned the annual anti-Israel Quds Day march this year, the first time the city has taken a stand against the event since it became a local tradition in 1996.

Quds Day, which protests the establishment of the state of Israel, was established in 1979 by Iran’s leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Jewish and pro-Israel groups have tried for years to have the march banned as a purely anti-Semitic demonstration. It is illegal in Germany to call for the destruction of Israel. Germany designated the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group as a terrorist organization last year, and Schuster added that the move should make it easier to ban the Quds march, because the connection to the banned Hezbollah is obvious. In 2016, Berlin barred Quds Day marchers from carrying Hezbollah flags, saying the image of an upraised assault weapon is a call for genocide.