Annual ‘Quds Day’ March in Frankfurt Despite Authorities’ Antisemitism Concerns

Ailin Vilches Arguello

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Quds Day march in Hannover, Germany in 2024. Photo: Screenshot

A demonstration calling for Israel’s destruction will be allowed to take place in the German city of Frankfurt this weekend after an administrative court overturned the city’s ban on the rally, which had been put in place due to expected displays of antisemitism.

The Frankfurt Administrative Court on Friday ruled that the ban on the march, which was scheduled to take place on Saturday, was unlawful.

German authorities on Thursday had banned the annual “Quds Day” rally in Frankfurt, citing public safety concerns and its antisemitic symbolism, local media reported.

According to the city’s assembly authority, the decision was based on the “high probability” that the gathering “would serve as an openly visible symbol of antisemitism related to Israel” and that public safety would be immediately at risk.

Sponsored by the Iranian regime, the annual Quds Day commemorations event is held in Tehran and several other cities, where Iran and its allies organize marches in support of the Palestinians and call for Israel’s annihilation.

“The end of Ramadan is actually a celebration of inner contemplation and also of hope,” Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said in a statement, as reported by German media. “It is almost tragic that Muslim fanatics – incited by Iran – repeatedly use this occasion to propagate hatred against Israel and Jews.”

He called on Muslim groups to “actively position themselves against this abuse of their faith,” adding, “Everyone knows what to expect from Al-Quds marches. They should be banned.”

Iran is the chief international backer of Hamas, providing the Palestinian terrorist group with weapons, funding, and training. According to media reports based on documents seized by the Israeli military in Gaza last year, Iran had been informed about Hamas’s plan to invade and perpetrate a massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, months in advance.

Since 2015, demonstrations have been held on the streets of Frankfurt every year during the last weekend of Ramadan, marking the so-called “Al-Quds [Arabic name for Jerusalem] Day.” The event was introduced by Iran’s then-nascent Islamist regime in 1979 as the “Day of the Liberation of the Holy City of Jerusalem from Zionist Occupation.”

Frankfurt’s Public Order office said that between 500 and 1,000 people were expected to participate in the events this weekend.

Since last year, the official slogan of the event has been “Stop the War” — referring to the Gaza war, which began after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, during which Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages.

Frankfurt’s mayor, Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg, criticized the event last year as a “propaganda day for the [Iranian] regime,” stating that demonstrations with “clearly antisemitic slogans” and the display of images of terrorists should be banned.

During the rally last year, participants chanted slogans such as “Israel, child killer” and “Germany finances, Israel bombs.”

“Demonstrations that deny a state’s right to exist and call for its destruction cannot be peaceful,” Frankfurt’s Commissioner of Public Order, Annette Rinn, said in a statement. “Therefore, the decision to officially ban this year’s Al-Quds Day in Frankfurt is the only appropriate action.”

Rinn later said she accepted the court’s decision to overturn the ban, adding, “Our goal is now to ensure an orderly course of the assembly through appropriate conditions, especially with regard to possible counter-demonstrations.”

In 2021, Berlin became the first jurisdiction in Germany to allow the prohibition of gatherings promoting hate speech. It is one of eight federal states that have adopted this measure.

In recent years, “Al-Quds” demonstrations in the German capital have been canceled.

Ulrike Becker, director of research at the Berlin Middle East Freedom Forum, has called for a general ban on “this celebration of antisemitism.”

“It is a mistake to allow demonstrations that call for the destruction of Israel on the streets of Germany, whether in Frankfurt, Berlin, or anywhere else,” Becker said.

It is not “a peaceful protest,” but rather “a call for the destruction of the Jewish state,” a demand that “cannot be protected by the right to freedom of expression or the right to protest,” Becker added.

She also said the event is “not a legitimate expression of opinion” but “an instrument of the Islamist regime [of Iran] to spread hatred and hostile imagery.”

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