On Friday, March 13, 2026, the Houston community gathered in solidarity with oppressed people across Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, and the rest of the world for the annual Al-Quds Day, a call for Palestinian self-determination and a fervent opposition to Israel and Zionism. As the imperialist axis drags the world into another war, Houston stood as one, in opposition to the U.S. war on Iran and the ongoing U.S.-Zionist genocide in Palestine.
Almost 100 protesters—including those from local organizations Rise Against Oppression, the All-African People's Revolutionary Party, Anakbayan Houston, and Palestine Solidarity TX—stood on the corner of Westheimer and Post Oak with signs reading, "We Will Pray in Al-Quds," "U.S. F-35 Jets Bombed 180 Schoolgirls in Iran," and "Iran and Palestine, United Against the U.S.A. War Machine." Together, they chanted هيهات منا الذلة (trans. "Hayhat Minna Zillah," meaning "far from us is disgrace" or "never to humiliation"), a famous quote from Imam Hussain ibn Ali—a fierce refusal to accept oppression or submission to the enemy.
To the West, Al-Quds is known as the city of Jerusalem, and in Arabic, Al-Quds translates to "the Holy One." Al-Quds Day was first established by Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khomeini in 1979 after the Islamic Revolution as a day of global solidarity with Palestinian liberation and more broadly, the liberation of the region from imperialism and Zionism. "Today, the issue of Palestine is the foremost issue of the Islamic World. The destiny of Palestine is the destiny of us all," said Khamenei in 2017.
Observed on the last Friday of Ramadan, millions across the Arab and Muslim world march for Palestine each year. During the final 10 nights of Ramadan, the holiest nights of the year for Muslims, Israeli authorities have fully closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for over two weeks, due to "security concerns" amid the U.S. war on Iran. It is the longest closure in its history and the first time since 1967 that such a closure has taken place during Ramadan. Palestinians were prevented from praying at Al-Aqsa during Laylat al-Qadr and were also denied the chance to pray in the mosque for the last Friday prayer of Ramadan.
Shawn, who organizes with Rise Against Oppression, stressed the importance of international solidarity, as working people around the world suffer under Western hegemony, saying that Al-Quds Day is an opportunity for folks to "reinvigorate" their commitment to collective freedom. "[Showing up to Al-Quds Day] is necessary to liberate all oppressed people from the clutches of Western imperialism, the capitalist system, and its global hegemony, and therefore its important for us to come together as one working class, one class of conscious people across the world who are standing for global liberation, and therefore the liberation of humanity," he told Scalawag.
Safa from Palestine Solidarity TX said that with all the "bloodshed," genocide, and violence that the U.S.-Zionist regime has committed, all they have done is "accelerate" the end of Zionism. "This is because they do not fundamentally understand the people of Gaza, the people of Lebanon, the people of Iran," she said, during her speech at the protest. "[Israel and the U.S.] think they can bombard, imprison, and genocide our people into submission but this will never work because our people refuse to submit to these butchers. Our conviction protects us from defeat."
From Venezuela to Cuba, from Gaza to Tehran, from the Sahel to Congo, Houstonians made it clear that they oppose the U.S. empire's grip on our world and the murderous cruelty of the Zionist regime. "What we do here in the imperial core matters, not just to cheer or weep from the sidelines, but to play an active role in this battle for humanity," said Safa, proclaiming that in Houston, residents have a historic opportunity to disrupt the genocidal war machine by supporting the Houston Arms Embargo Campaign, as the Port of Houston regularly transports parts for the F-35 fighter jet, the "crown jewel" of Israel's military used to drop bombs on Gaza.
Similarly, Shawn told Scalawag that as Westerners, we have a unique responsibility to the masses, given our proximity to the imperial core, or the United States. "We are a part of the imperial machinery that imposes global injustice on the masses of the world and in some ways, we are even beneficiaries of it… We cannot continue to live aloof on the mass graves of Black and Native peoples and on the pillage and plunder of the masses of people of Africa, Latin America, and much of Asia."
From Venezuela to Cuba, from Gaza to Tehran, from the Sahel to Congo, Houstonians made it clear that they oppose the U.S. empire's grip on our world and the murderous cruelty of the Zionist regime.
Molana Muzzamil Zaidi warned protesters about the consequences of Western silence and complicity, citing the ongoing war against Iran as well as the 1948 Nakba (Arabic for "catastrophe"). The Nakba is the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs by Israel. More than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs were displaced from their homeland, during the Zionist war of conquest—after the British partition and establishment of the State of Israel. The Nakba's destruction and depopulation of over 500 villages was coupled with the Zionist entity's refusal to honor the Palestinians right of return, making way for the Greater Israel Zionist expansion project that is the ultimate aim of its current genocidal war.
"The resistance does not stop at an event, brothers and sisters, the resistance is a way of life," Zaidi said. "Normally what we do is we come over here, we attend the protest, and we go home. But our brothers and sisters in Gaza, our brothers and sisters in Iran, our brothers and sisters in Lebanon, our brothers and sisters in Iraq, they don't get to go to their homes because their homes have been destroyed by this child killing machine known as the American empire and Zionist regime."
And there's a reason that the Islamic Republic of Iran was put at the center of this year's Al-Quds Day rally. As the U.S. continues its war against the country, Iran maintains its status as a steadfast and longtime defender of a self-determined Arab and Muslim world. Iran asserts not only its own right to defend itself, but Palestine's as well, fighting for the right of all people—across Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and the rest of the region—so they can build their own futures, free from Zionist expansion and U.S. imperialism and intervention.
"It's time for Americans to wake up. Until when are they going to keep sending their children to die so that these politicians can fulfill their political agenda," said Zaidi. "Until when are you going to keep harboring the genocide and oppression in the world by paying your taxpayer dollars, your hard-earned money is going to oppress other nations. Until when are you going to stay silent?"
As the U.S. continues its war against the country, Iran maintains its status as a steadfast and longtime defender of a self-determined Arab and Muslim world. Iran asserts not only its own right to defend itself, but Palestine's as well, fighting for the right of all people—across Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and the rest of the region—so they can build their own futures, free from Zionist expansion and U.S. imperialism and intervention.
He continued: "The system we are living in cannot be reformed and hence, just a rebel is not going to do it. Just a rebellion is not going to do it. We need to have a transformation, and transformation cannot happen without revolution. Therefore, I invite each and everyone to join us in this revolution, to take down this… government, this system."
GLORY TO THE MARTYRS
GLORY TO THE RESISTANCE