Tens of thousands of Iranians marched through Tehran Friday proclaiming solidarity with Palestinians and chanting "Death to Israel" in the country's annual protest against the occupying regime.President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in his address to the protestors, vowed that Iran and other states would continue resistance until "all of Palestine is liberated" from Israel's hands.
The late founder of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini, declared the last Friday of Ramadan as "Quds Day" to call for the liberation of Al-Quds from the Israeli occupation.
After Mecca in Saudi Arabia, Al-Quds is the holiest place to Muslims.
Iranians of all ages began the march through the center of the capital to Tehran University to mark Quds Day, calling for Al-Quds and the occupied territories to be handed to the Palestinians.
Colored bibs were handed out to protestors with the slogan "Death to Israel, Death to United States" while "Palestine will only be free with fighting and faith" was the slogan on one banner.
"I come every year because the Palestinians are helpless and they cannot defend themselves. I come here to attract the world's attention to their plight," said Somayeh Salim, 27.
She was carrying an Israeli flag in her rucksack: "I am going to burn it."
The protest was due to be echoed in similar demonstrations up and down the country.
Ahmadinejad has repeatedly predicted that Israel is doomed to disappear and questioned the suffering of the Palestinians as indemnity for the European killing of Jews in World War II.
Iran does not recognize Israel and insists on a referendum to clarify the geographic and political status of the "occupied territories of Palestine" in which millions of Palestinian refugees are allowed to vote.
Ahmadinejad and other Iranian leaders have several times stressed that Iran would accept the outcome of the referendum "whatever it would be".
Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that Iran had an "international mission" to stop the Zionist regime's hegemony in the Middle East.