MADRID- Day of Al-Quds is observed every year on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan. This commemoration, initiated by Imam Khomeini in 1979, aims primarily to support Palestinians in their struggle against the Zionist occupation of their lands and oppression against them.

Fifteen years before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini had placed Palestine at the center of his political concerns. From the early years as a public and political figure, Khomeini succeeded in institutionalizing discourse on Palestine within the Iranian Islamist movement. He strongly criticized the Pahlavi regime, which was allied with Israel and the United States. This alliance was one of the fundamental reasons why Khomeini vehemently opposed the Shah and his economic policies. He argued that these policies had turned Iran into a market flooded with Israeli goods, while Israel had become the main importer of Iranian oil.

On the other hand, it cannot be forgotten that in the years leading up to the Revolution, the repression of the Pahlavi regime was in the hands of the secret service, SAVAK, which was established and supported by both Israel’s Mossad and the United States’ CIA.

All of the above can be summed up in the question posed by Khomeini in one of his sermons: "Is the Shah an Israeli?" It was these types of public accusations by Khomeini against the "traitor Shah" that led to his arrest in June 1963. As a result of his detention, a popular uprising in support of Khomeini was unleashed, known as the 15th Khordad Movement, which many experts consider as the first revolutionary episode that culminated in 1979.

Alongside calls for the liberation of Iran from imperialism, Khomeini also expressed his desire to free Palestine from Zionist oppression and occupation. In this context, in 1968, Khomeini issued a fatwa, an Islamic decree, declaring it obligatory for all Muslims to allocate a portion of what is known as khums, an Islamic tax similar to alms, to assist Palestinian fighters in their struggle against Zionists.

Once the Islamic Republic was established in 1979, the issue of Palestine acquired a decisive role in Iran's ideological orientation. At the same time, Imam Khomeini declared that the last Friday of the month of Ramadan would be commemorated as "Al-Quds Day" and explained that this day symbolizes the solidarity of the umma with the Palestinian cause. In this regard, Khomeini once again made use of the basic ontological difference through which Iran saw and continues to see politics: the difference between the oppressed (mostaz’afin) and the oppressors (mostakberin). The Iranian leader expressed this dichotomy applied to the Palestinian case in the following terms: "We are on the side of the oppressed wherever they may be. The Palestinians are oppressed by the Israelis, therefore, we are with them." Khomeini also declared that the Iranian revolution would not be complete until the Palestinians achieved their freedom.

The current Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, has followed in Imam Khomeini's footsteps by granting Palestine the unparalleled status of the "most important issue" for the Islamic world, and has invoked this issue more frequently than any other in the history.

For Imam Khomeini, as well as for current Iranian leaders, the issue of Palestine is an "ummatic" issue, which means it affects the entire Muslim community.
The significance of Palestine as an "ummatic" symbol lies in its potential for political possibilities not constrained by Western vocabulary. In other words, rallying around the symbol of Palestine signifies that the possibility of an autonomous political identity is attainable, based on Islamic vocabulary.

For many people, a political explanation based on Islam may not be considered valid for criticizing Zionism as a colonial project. One could argue that the normative view maintains that Palestine has nothing to do with Islam. Following this normative view, Islam cannot function as a political identity that can oppose colonial oppression. Moreover, Islam is not only seen as apolitical but also as a factor of depoliticization. Islam cannot be a political category because, according to Western grammar, political categories can only be expressed in the language of the West.

The Day of Al-Quds represents a rejection of what has been called the "hegemonic vision" of politics. This commemoration serves as a reminder that Islam is inherently political. In fact, it is the only one that anticipates its dissolution. A non-political Islam would be to accept the colonial vision that the proper place of Islam is to be a moral guide, something internal, never a political identity. It also focuses on the existence of an alternative genealogy of colonial resistance that has its own grammar, a grammar that is not limited to the language of "national liberation."

Palestine also represents a struggle against the dehumanization caused by the current neoliberal modern order. It serves as a constant reminder of the possibility of the "Palestinization" of many others in the West considered not human enough to be protected. In this sense, the West, understood as an ideology, can be defined as a machinery that generates a constant movement of inclusion-exclusion. 

The space of inclusion-exclusion is a non-dialectical space, meaning that the fundamental difference between human vs non-human/not-human-enough is solid, permanent, even if some groups may fluctuate between both spaces. This difference is maintained through constant violence against the excluded, ranging from the naturalization of extermination, expropriation, domination, exploitation, premature death, and conditions worse than death, as can be seen in Gaza.

The significance of Al Quds Day, in political terms, lies in empowering the oppressed and, in doing so, it manages to paralyze the machinery of inclusion-exclusion characteristic of modernity and the neoliberal order. Al Quds Day signifies placing the mostaz’afin at the center and through this figure, it seeks to rehumanize the world, thereby laying the foundation for a new world far from colonialism, violence, and the division between humans and those considered not human enough.

The Franco-Algerian activist, Houria Bouteldja, in her book "Whites, Jews, and Us," speaks of "revolutionary love" as that which can enable different marginalized groups in the West to converse, converge, and remake the world in a more just manner. Al Quds Day seeks exactly the same objective: to build a world of justice starting from Palestine but reaching out to other places of suffering, such as Kashmir, the Rohingyas, racialized populations in various Western countries, among others.

In this sense, while it is true that Al Quds Day is based on an Islamic vision of politics and anti-colonial struggle, this does not hinder the possibility of building a movement towards a horizon of justice shared by different oppressed groups. Both Islamic mostaz’afin and extra-ummatic oppressed groups share the same exclusion and are subjected to the same violence.

It can be concluded by stating that Al Quds Day aspires to build a world grounded in justice, the eradication of oppression, and the abolition of white supremacy. It offers an anti-hegemonic political horizon for all those who are excluded.