The annual Al-Quds Day rally was held in front of the American Consulate in Toronto on April 15, 2023.
Khaled Barakat is a Canadian national based in Vancouver, BC. In 2017, Arabic media described Barakat as a member of the political bureau of the Palestinian Front for the Liberalization of Palestine (PFLP). In 2003, Canada designated the PFLP as a terrorist organization.
Barakat co-founded Masar Badil, the Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path Movement. According to No One Is Illegal, “Khaled Barakat was a founder of the No One Is Illegal network and movement in Vancouver,” “a member of No One Is Illegal,” and “an active leader in social movements in Vancouver and across Canada.” He is also affiliated with Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and joined arms in anti-Israeli protests with activists of Canada Palestine Association and Independent Jewish Voices. In 2019, Barakat was subjected to a political ban and excluded from Germany.
Here is Khaled Barakat’s speech at Al-Quds Day:
Free free Palestine. Long live Palestine. Long live the Intifada. Long live Palestine. Brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, our beloved Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian, Egyptian Community, all of our community here, our beloved Muslim Community of Toronto, assalamu alaikum [peace be upon you].
Today, we have come here to Toronto to celebrate with you Al-Quds International Day, an event that has become one of the most significant pillars of our movements, particularly in the shitat, in exile, in the diaspora. When Al-Quds day was called by the leader of the Revolution Imam Khomeini and to be held on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan over 40 years ago, only few cities responded. But today, hundreds of cities across the world are responding to the international day of Al-Quds. Today, across the globe, from Iran to Lebanon to South Africa to Canada, Turtle Island from London to Paris to Dakar, all the way to occupied Al-Quds, commemorate and participate in Al-Quds day.
What does that mean, brothers and sisters? It proves without a doubt that our movement, just like our resistance back home, is getting stronger by the day, and that we are more organized as the millions around the world come on this day more confident of victory, and they come with a clear message that Al-Quds International Day is a call for unity, for the liberation of Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, because for us Palestinians Palestine is all sacred. Palestine is Al-Quds from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea. Every inch of our Palestine is sacred as Al-Quds is sacred.
Today, Al-Quds Day sets the compass and the goal and the road to a liberated Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea. Al-Quds day is a day of resistance against racism, Zionism, imperialism, colonization, oppression. It is also a message of compassion, unity, solidarity and the unity of all our fronts.
Brothers and sisters, the Zionist regime carries out its daily crimes against our people in Palestine, attacking worshippers in Al-Aqsa mosque, besieging our beloved Gaza, maintaining a system of colonization and oppression against our people in the West Bank, Al-Quds, and it continues its occupation of our beloved Syrian Golan Heights and Shebaa Farms. And as Israel continues its daily crimes Mr. [Justin] Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, hides in his fancy office in Ottawa. The prime minister of Canada has no respect for our feelings or the rights of our community here in Canada. He does not respect Canadians. He ignores the atrocities that are happening daily in Palestine he ignores Israel killing of Canadian citizens in Gaza. Do you know that an entire Lebanese Canadian family and an entire Palestinian Canadian families were burned under U.S. made missiles in Gaza in the aggression on Palestine and Lebanon? And what does Canada do? It swallows its tongue, remains silent while continuing the army trade with the Israeli regime.
Racist and Zionist attacks happens here in Canada in Halifax where Palestinian kids are being told not to wear their keffiyehs [Palestinian scarfs]. We have heard nothing from the so-called multicultural regime of Ottawa, and while the brave Canadian Palestinian kids are fighting back for their rights and identity the prime minister is hiding. The idiot [Justin Trudeau] and his ministers could learn one or two things from our brave kids in Halifax.
So, how do we respond, brothers and sisters, to this injustice. I’ll say we should respond with intensifying our work and activities and isolating the Zionist regime, boycotting Israel, boycott Israeli products, boycott the so-called religion dialogue with Zionists, and say big no to normalization with Zionists. Let us organize campaigns against Canada support to Israel, Canada’s military financial and economic support and complicity with Israel. Let us strengthening our relationship with the struggle of the indigenous people of this land, our true natural allies against colonization and settler colonization.
Let us organize in our unions, students organizing in campuses, mosques, churches, because a mosque that does not carry the banner of justice for Palestine and for Al-Quds is not our mosque, and a church that does not call for the liberation of Bethlehem and Nazareth and Al-Quds is not our church. A union that does not support the Palestinian workers is not our Union. We must organize vote to participate in election is to bring down racist voices with our collective and united voice.
Finally, this demonstration, the demonstrations that are taking place all over the world for Palestine, especially in north America, in Europe, in Latin America, are an integral part of the camp of resistance. You are the international popular incubator of our heroic and brave resistance in Lebanon and in Palestine. We will not be silent. We will be vocal and we will say things the way we are. We are here to declare our full and unconditional support for the strategy that has been declared by the forces of the resistance [led by Hezbollah, Hamad and the Islamic Jihad] under the banner of unity of the fronts.
So, wake up Canada and stand for justice. Don’t support occupation and colonization, not on this land and not in Palestine. Wake up Canada, the world is changing, the East is rising, imperialism will fall and collapse, and another world is possible, a world based on justice, equality, compassion and freedom. Long live Palestine. Al-Quds will be liberated and will remain the united eternal capital of Palestine. This Zionist regime will crumble and be defeated. Palestine will be free from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea. assalamu alaikum [peace be upon you].