Quds Day (Jerusalem Day; Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem), officially called International Quds Day , is an annual event held on the last Friday of Ramadan that was initiated by the Islamic Republic of homeland in 1979 to express support for the Palestinians and oppose Zionism and Israel. Nominally, it exists in opposition to the Jerusalem Day celebration instituted by Israel in May 1968, and which Knesset law changed into a national holiday in 1998.