Accompanied by other British and international correspondents and peace activists, she broke the siege making her way to help the people in Gaza. It has happened not once but twice; once through the land and once through the sea. Though this is not the end for Yvonne Ridley, British journalist, filmmaker and peace activist who has contributed several years to be the voice for the voiceless people in besieged Gaza.

On the eve of international Al Quds Day, initiated by late founder of Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini (RA), Taqrib News Agency (TNA) in an exclusive interview with Yvonne Ridley asked her about Al Quds Day and her future plans for the Occupied Palestine.


Q: What is your personal view on International Quds Day?

A: International Al Quds Day is very wonderful pro-Palestine event. There are no days on calendar in a positive way that we think of Palestine apart from Al Quds Day which is showing international support through peace for Palestine as well as opposing the Zionist apartheid control of Jerusalem which is an international city and it is a very very powerful symbol not just to Muslims but to Judaism and Christianity. So this is a very important day and has it not been for the vision and enterprise of late Ayatollah Khomeini (RA), it never would have happened.

Q: There have been many uprisings, clashes and different issues in the region and around the world but the issue of Palestine has not been forgotten and people from different walks of life and with different views cry out for oppression of Palestine. In your viewpoint what is the reason for that?

A: I think that Palestine manages to mobilize and unite ordinary people across the world because they see the injustice in what happened to the Palestinian people. Once they know the story of Palestine, they cannot let it rest and people of all faiths and no faiths including a lot of courageous Jewish people come together to remember Palestine on the international Al Quds Day.

Q: How do you think Al Quds Day will be held this year regarding the point that Syria as one of the few ways to Palestine is at unrest?

A: You know ordinary Syrian people are again people of faith and no faith, support Palestine and regardless of who is in control, ordinary Syrians regard the significance of Al Quds Day and I think it is very important to remember this because ordinary people are above politics unfortunately politicians have not been true to Palestine as they claimed. The Arab Spring is unfolding and continuing and one of the true messages that come out on the streets in the Arab Spring is support for Palestine.

Q: How do you see the future of Palestinian people and their land?

A: Al Quds Day rallies are getting larger every day and that is going to be very good for Palestine but you Palestinians are the originators of the Arab Spring and they lost their land but they will regain it again not through armies, not through politicians but through people power and that I am sure of.

As I said earlier it was Ayatollah Khomeini (RA) who had the vision to create Al Quds Day because there are many anniversaries around Palestine but there are very grim and very bleak. This is the one positive and I think it is a constant remind which people forget the endurance of Palestine.

Q: Do you know anything about the plans for this year Al Quds Day in the UK?

A: Well I know that the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign will be travelling to London for Al Quds Day and lots of different organizations will rally in London as they do every year. This isn’t things to get bigger each year and is gaining more support and it is also growing in America and Canada and across Europe.

Q: Do you have any special message for the people on Al Quds Day?

A: To think of Palestinians in the time of struggle, to keep on rising, to keep on resisting. The time of tyrants and despots is over. We are seeing a new landscape developing across the Middle East. Whatever changes in the Middle East are coming, the struggle of Palestinian people remains and Arabs across the Middle East will not forget the struggles of the Palestinians wherever they are.

You know there are lots of Palestinians in refugee camps, but I am confident that maybe in the next ten or twenty years there is a Palestinian’s will to get their land back and will be victorious but in the meantime it is important that Al Quds Day is a rally of a kind for ordinary people across the west to show their support for the Palestinian struggle against the Zionism and the apartheid regime of Israel.

Q: Will you join another flotilla if there is going to be one?

A: I have broken the siege by sea and by land we are looking to do this by air and we are looking for new ways of raising a few and I think the next stage is to challenge the siege by air. There are few of us who intend to fly into Gaza and it is possible that Israelis when they left Gaza during the last war, they left a reasonable quality of tacks that may put quite a nice landing for the aircraft so we are looking at the inventive ways or the time to break the siege. It is not going to happen in the next few weeks but it is an active plan.

Finally what I would like to say to Palestinian people is we salute your courage. Just keep on rising keep on resisting. Justice will come through at the end.