Four years on, Gen. Soleimani continues to inspire global Free Palestine movement
By Mohsen Badaksh
As the world marks the fourth anniversary of the US assassination of Iran’s top anti-terror commander, General Qassem Soleimani, pro-resistance voices dedicated to exposing US-Israeli war crimes in Gaza are growing louder and pushing for a free Palestine.
This new international trend to form activist groups closely resembling the IRGC Quds Force in mission and objectives was sparked by the heroic operation of the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, against the Israeli military fortresses built on illegal Zionist settlements.
The Palestinian operation, which came in response to decades of Israeli occupation and oppression, was followed by the Israeli genocidal war on the blockaded territory with US approval and weaponry.
The American military’s terror operation in early January 2020 against Gen. Soleimani -- widely recognized as the region’s leading anti-terror commander -- was ordered by then-US President Donald Trump, and fully supported by his then-top political opponent from the rival Democratic Party and eventual successor, Joe Biden.
The act of terrorism was clearly aimed at appeasing the Israeli regime, which had made no secret of how much it dreaded the IRGC Quds Force and its commander, as admitted by many Western observers.
This year’s anniversary of Gen. Soleimani’s terror assassination comes as more than 22,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza – mostly women and children -- have been slaughtered by US-supplied Israeli bombs and other armaments in less than three months, triggering a remarkable international outcry against the apartheid regime in Tel Aviv, and its top sponsors in Washington and other Western capitals.
This global outcry has also been marked by the formation of activist groups dedicated to exposing the criminal history of the Israeli regime’s occupation of Palestine and waging a massive campaign for its freedom from decades of US-led oppression.
Such activist groups can best be described as the new variations of Gen. Soleimani’s Quds Force in terms of their core objectives – ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian lands.
Quds Forces of the US
There has been a remarkable show of support for Palestine by activists from all walks of life across the United States, whose government has persistently served as the prime backer of Israeli atrocities against Palestinians over the decades and has even engaged in wars and terror operations on its behalf, including the assassination of Gen. Soleimani.
Recent months have seen massive demonstrations in all major US cities and even in relatively smaller cities where protest rallies are quite rare – such as Salt Lake City, the capital of a historically very conservative state of Utah, in support of the Palestinian people and resistance.
Protest rallies, debates and discussions on the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the active US role in it have also been widely held on campuses of major American universities and other higher learning institutions, which eventually led to the congressional subpoena and grilling of presidents of three prominent universities by pro-Israel lawmakers.
These academic institutions were blasted for allowing criticism of the Israeli regime as what they falsely described as “anti-Semitism.” The political ploy to silence criticism of the apartheid regime has since backfired amid more assertive protests censuring official measures to limit the constitutional right of the freedom of expression.
In the very political system that regards any criticism of Israel as a major taboo, there have also been reports of numerous legislators openly condemning Israeli atrocities against Palestinians while challenging official American support for the regime’s war crimes as well as continued shipments of weapons to the occupying entity.
Despite that, the Joe Biden administration arranged for rapid delivery of artillery shells and other lethal weapons to the Israeli regime twice in the past month without required congressional approvals under supposed presidential emergency powers.
Yet another notable campaign by the US-based “Quds forces” has targeted the mainstream media conglomerates having close ties with Washington’s government agencies, slamming them for censoring news items related to the massive US-Israeli genocidal war crimes in Gaza and attempts to justify that.
Remarkably, I have personally witnessed the great and very active participation of American youth and students in protest activities for Palestine, most of whom do not appear to be of West Asian descent.
This, I believe, spells a major development in the United States in terms of demanding justice from politicians and media operatives and promises even better developments in the nation’s political landscape in the forthcoming general elections.
Quds Forces of Western Europe
Activist groups across Western Europe -- whose governments have also played active roles in supporting the Israeli regime and its decades-long atrocities against Palestinians – also stand out in the massive expression of outrage against the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza as well as demanding a permanent end to the occupation of Palestine, objectives again resembling those of the Quds Force.
Capitals and major cities across Europe have played host to numerous protest marches and rallies to condemn the latest war crimes committed by the Tel Aviv regime against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank using mostly American armament.
Most of these massive demonstrations and rallies have been held in major European cities such as London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Rome and Amsterdam.
People in many European countries have been particularly active in promoting the boycott of products manufactured by corporations doing business with the Israeli regime or financing their atrocities in the occupied territories.
This is while several European lawmakers and government officials have also blasted outrageous Israeli war crimes in Gaza in open remarks leading to the forced resignation of a minister in Spain.
However, in the face of the new assertiveness of European activists and politicians in their criticism of Israeli atrocities and persisting demands for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, their governments have been silent about developments in occupied Palestine and no longer express support for the Zionist regime.
Again, the new pro-Palestine activist groups and politicians in Europe also appear unrelenting and dedicated to challenging the long-persisting Israeli terrorism through protests, boycotts, and legal and political measures – much unlike the past decades of silence and passivism.
Quds Forces of Asia, Africa and Latin America
Even in regions of the world never particularly supportive of the US-backed apartheid regime occupying Palestine, such as Africa, Asia and Latin America – which have experienced Western-led oppression, occupation and colonialism in their recent history – activist groups have held huge protests and taken diplomatic measures against the Israeli regime like never before.
Among Latin American countries severing ties with or recalling diplomats from Tel Aviv following the Gaza genocide were Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, and Belize.
Cuba and Venezuela had already broken ties with the occupying regime to protest its rampant oppression against Palestinians in their homeland.
Protest rallies against the Israeli regime also have been held in many other Latin American nations.
In Africa, countries such as South Africa, Chad, Mali, Niger and Mauritania also severed ties or recalled diplomats from Tel Aviv to protest the regime’s war crimes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Massive rallies in support of ‘Free Palestine’ were also held in several African countries and even in the Muslim-majority Morocco, which is ruled by a Western-backed dictator who recognizes the illegitimate Israeli regime and has refused to sever ties with it despite its latest atrocities.
In the Pacific and South Asian regions, news outlets in Muslim and non-Muslim countries such as Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Australia, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan among others have also reported protests against Israeli war crimes, pointing to new activism in this part of the world.
Quds Forces of West Asia region
In the West Asia region, where the occupied Palestine is located, however, Quds force-like activism has also included military measures against US and Israeli terrorist forces and assets by the ‘Axis of Resistance’ in countries such as Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq, which have been and continue to be top targets of American-Israeli aggression.
While Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Yemeni military have engaged Israeli regime forces since the genocidal war against Gaza began last October, Syrian resistance forces have been engaged in retaliatory strikes against Israeli aerial and drone attacks and the Iraq-based resistance fighters have been targeting occupying US military forces doing Israeli regime’s dirty works in Iraq and Syria.
Additionally, the resistance forces in these countries closest to Palestine have threatened to expand their operations against both Israeli and American forces in the region if their genocidal measures against Palestinians persist.
Quds Force-like activism has even been widely reported in West Asia’s Western-backed dictatorships of Bahrain and Jordan, as well as Turkey -- all of which had maintained diplomatic ties with the apartheid Israeli regime despite popular opposition to the move – forcing their respective governments to recall their diplomats from Tel Aviv.
This comes amid US-based press reports that the Tel Aviv regime has evacuated all of its embassies in the region in fear of being targeted by the emerging Quds forces in the respective countries.
US terror of Soleimani backfires
While Washington and its Zionist ally boasted and widely publicized the terror assassination of Iran’s top anti-terrorist commander as a major victory for US and Israeli interests in the region, the reality remains that since Gen. Soleimani’s martyrdom, determination and conviction of IRGC Quds Force have immensely multiplied in their persisting efforts to free Palestine from Zionist occupation for good.
This is while countless volunteers and military officers from across the globe have reportedly expressed interest in joining Iran’s Quds Force and other military forces not only to avenge the assassination of Gen. Soleimani but to also develop skills to resist foreign interference in their respective nations.
Additionally, American and Israeli officials, complicit in ordering, planning and executing Gen. Soleimani’s assassination, remain fearful of potential retaliation vowed by Iranian military commanders as well as the forces of the region’s Resistance Axis.
The recent and continuing emergence of activism across the globe to free Palestine will serve as the death knell and final blow to all those who foolishly celebrated the assassination of the top commander.
Mohsen Badakhsh is an educator and freelance journalist.
(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)
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