Al-Quds Day Cape Town

Al-Quds Day Cape Town takes place annually on the last Friday of Ramadan, when hundreds of members of the city’s Muslim community gather in front of the South African Parliament. Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem and means “The Holy One.” The Al-Quds Day Cape Town march is observed as a day of humanitarian solidarity with the people of Palestine.

History and Context of Al-Quds Day Cape Town

International Quds Day was initiated in 1979 and is commemorated worldwide. The Al-Quds Day Cape Town march draws on a long tradition of political mobilisation within the city’s Muslim community, concentrated in the Bo-Kaap and across the Cape Flats. The Cape Muslim community’s history of resistance predates the end of apartheid. Imam Abdullah Haron, imam of the Al-Jamia Mosque in Claremont, was killed in detention by the security police in 1969. Achmad Cassiem spent years as a political prisoner on Robben Island. These figures are part of a lineage that connects anti-apartheid struggle with international solidarity. Cassiem addressed the Al-Quds Day Cape Town crowd and called for unity among Muslims experiencing oppression worldwide.

On the Streets of Al-Quds Day Cape Town

Marchers at Al-Quds Day Cape Town carried banners and posters with slogans including “Down with Zionism” and “Free Palestine.” Speakers who had travelled from Palestine addressed the gathering. Children were prominently present throughout Al-Quds Day Cape Town: girls on their fathers’ shoulders holding signs, boys alongside the vehicles passing through the streets. An Israeli flag was burned in front of Parliament. The atmosphere at Al-Quds Day Cape Town combined the familial with the political. Entire families attended, with grandparents, parents and children marching together.

Al-Quds Day Cape Town Palestine solidarity march at Parliament

Solidarity and Community at Al-Quds Day Cape Town

Al-Quds Day Cape Town is one of the most visible annual expressions of the Cape Muslim community’s longstanding support for Palestinian self-determination. Several marchers wore T-shirts quoting Imam Husain: “Death with dignity is better than life with humiliation.” The march passed through central Cape Town before returning to Parliament for final speeches. These photographs document the Al-Quds Day Cape Town march itself: the crowd, the banners, the speeches, the children, and the energy of a community that understands solidarity not as abstraction but as lived practice rooted in its own history of resistance and survival.