A world wide movement has taken to the streets against the attacks on the Gaza strip.
As the Israeli was preparing to launch its ground offensive against Gaza, around the world many hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to condemn the Zionist state and its latest atrocity aimed at destroying the Palestinians as a people.
It is important that over ten thousand protesters marched in Tel-Aviv in a major demonstration against the war.
Amongst the chants in Hebrew that rang through the streets were: “one does not build an election campaign over the dead bodies of children!” and “orphans and widows are not election propaganda!” Others were “All cabinet ministers are war criminals!!” and “Barak, Barak, don’t worry – we shall meet you in The Hague!” and “Enough, enough – speak with Hamas!”
The demonstration was organised by Gush Shalom and twenty other peace organisations, A giant Gush Shalom banner said in Hebrew, Arabic and English: “Stop Killing! Stop the Siege! Stop the occupation!” The slogans of the demonstration called for the end of the blockade, an immediate cease-fire and opening of negotiations with Hamas as a legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The Israeli extreme Right mobilized to break up the demonstration by force and did in fact attack some demonstrators as they began to disperse
A thousand Arab citizens from the north arrived in Tel Aviv in 20 buses straight from the 150,000 strong demonstration of Arab Israeli citizens which had taken just place in Sakhnin in lower Galilee. There, huge crowds waving Palestinian flags and brandishing pro-Palestinian placards chanted “Gaza will not surrender to the tanks and bulldozers”, and “Don’t fear, Gaza, we are with you!” Thousands of Israeli police were deployed on the outskirts of the town and across northern Israel.
Large scale protests have continued on the occupied West Bank and Israeli soldiers shot and killed a demonstrator 22-year old Mufid Saleh Walweel, in the city of Qalqilya, the second such death since the Gaza assault began.
More than 1,000 demonstrators marched through Kuwait City, with banners reading “Gaza will not die” and “We want a free Gaza.” Other protests of at least 1,000 people took place in Madrid, Amsterdam, Milan and Turin.
In Egypt, thousands of paramilitary riot police have been deployed in a bid to calm growing anger. A week ago 20,000 people took to the streets of Egyptian cities, the largest protest saw around 8,000 people demonstrate on the streets of Assiut, a city in southern Egypt with another 3,000 gathering in Minya, south of Cairo. On Friday 2 some 5,000 managed to protest in the city of Ismailia. “We demand the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador” read one banner. The Egyptian police have detained 40 members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo as those who attempted to demonstrate were beaten with truncheons and prevented from going outside the moques and university campuses. Clearly Mubarak knows these demonstrators are as much against him and his collusion with Israel and the United Sates as they are against Ehud Barak or George Bush. He knows too that once the Egyptians masses conquered the streets his days are numbered.
Several thousand people demonstrated in the Turkish capital Ankara and in the country’s largest city. They burnt Israeli flags, waving Palestinian ones and chanting “Israeli murderers, get out of Palestine.” Around 3,000 Afghans held a similar demonstration in Kabul, burning Israeli flags and chanting anti-American slogans
Beyond the Arab and Muslim countries two thousand protested in South Africa outside the United States Consulate in Johannesburg organised by the Palestine Solidarity Committee (South Africa).
In Paris more than 25,000 demonstrators marched through the city centre chanting “Israel murderer!” and waving banners demanding an end to the attacks. As the demonstration ended ther were clashes between groups of protesters and the police and cars were overturned and set alight .In addtion 8,000 people demonstrated in Lyon, 3,000 people Nice and 3,800 in Mulhouse in the east.
Demonstrations in the USA were smaller than in Europe. In New York hundreds gathered in Times Square on Saturday, and swelled into a demonstration which stretched four blocks and clogged much of central tourist district for several hours. The demonstrators then marched in a slow procession along 42nd Street to the Israeli Consulate on Second Avenue.
However on Friday January 2, some 4,000 rallied at Tribune Plaza on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue and then marched across the Michigan Ave. Bridge to hold a protest in front of the Israeli Consulate on E. Wacker Drive. In Seattle, on Saturday 500 or more assembled at Westlake Center to protest the air strikes on Gaza and in Boston hundreds congregated on Copley Square on Saturday waving signs and banners and wearing the names of those who have died in the Gaza Strip.