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Al-Ahed Telegram

Protesters lead global chorus against Zionist state

Protesters lead global chorus against Zionist state
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Source: Agencies, 29-12-2008

Condemnation from around the globe of ‘Israel's' onslaught against the Gaza Strip picked up pace Sunday, with protests condemning the attacks that have left at least 313 Palestinians dead and leaders of major powers calling for a halt of the violence. British police arrested three people at a protest against the bombardment of Gaza outside the ‘Israeli' Embassy in London on Sunday.

Traffic in the up-scale central London district of Kensington where the embassy is located was brought to a halt by hundreds of protesters - organizers estimated 3,000, while police put the figure at 700.

Protesters waved Palestinian flags and placards, shouting in unison: "'Israel' is a terror state!"
At one point, barriers containing the protesters were torn down and riot police were deployed to restore order - with several protesters forcibly removed.

As teams of police officers attempted to push protesters away from the embassy, some demonstrators attempted to retaliate by pushing back and throwing placards at police.
"Yesterday was the bloodiest day in my homeland's history," said 68-year-old Gamal Hamed, whose 23-year-old son lives in Gaza.

"We will do what we can to make the world take notice ... We are all worried about where the conflict goes from here."

"The support at today's demonstration has been overwhelming," said British MP George Galloway, who attended and later addressed the rally. "We should treat ‘Israel' as we treated South Africa during apartheid. They should be shunned."

Hundreds of people also demonstrated outside the ‘Israeli' Embassy in Madrid to condemn the raids.

Demonstrators held up placards reading "'Israel' terrorist," "Stop state terrorism" and "No to the Palestinian holocaust."

The head of Spain's United Left coalition, Cayo Lara, who attended the rally, said "'Israel's' action was unjustified from all points of view."

In France, throngs of protesters took to the streets of Paris Sunday to denounce ‘Israel's' "terrorist" and "inhuman" bombardment and call for a rapid end to the conflict.

"What's happening is inhuman. We don't want any more deaths on either side, but the ‘Israeli' reaction is disproportionate," said one protester, who gave his name as Jamel and said he was an Algerian national living in France. 


He was demonstrating along with about 200 others at the foot of the landmark Arc de Triomphe at the top of the chic Champs Elysees avenue. Across the city in Barbes, an area with a high concentration of North Africans, police said 1,300 others joined an anti-‘Israel' protest at which a US flag was burned.

Souliman Serbout, a 28-year-old dentistry student, traveled from Dunkirk in northern France to join the peaceful protest at the Arc de Triomphe, where he held a banner bearing the slogan "Gaza - the New Shoah," (the Hebrew word for Holocaust).

"It's clear who's at fault there," he said. "There was a massacre of 300 people [in Gaza] by the ‘Israelis'. It has to be stopped immediately." 


"We are all Palestinians," was one of the slogans chanted by the crowd, as well as "Sadists, fascists, racists, it's you [the ‘Israelis'] who are the terrorists."

"'Israel' terrorist, Sarkozy complicit," was another slogan, referring to the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, chanted by the crowd. Many protesters carried Palestinian flags, while a smaller number bore flags of Lebanon's Hizbullah.

In Barbes, protester Mondher Sfar said that "what is happening in Gaza is a crime against humanity."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday urged ‘Israeli' counterpart Tzipi Livni in a telephone call to "urgently halt" ‘Israel's' military action.

"Our side made clear the position of Russia to urgently halt the military action in the Gaza Strip, which has already led to numerous victims among the Palestinians," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"We emphasized the need to restore a truce, which would allow the security of the civilian population in the south of ‘Israel' to be guaranteed," the Foreign Ministry said.

It added that Lavrov emphasized the importance of allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Meanwhile, the US said that massive ‘Israeli' air strikes Saturday the Gaza Strip were the fault of Hamas "thugs," as rival world powers urged both sides to halt escalating violence.

Outgoing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement that the US "holds Hamas responsible," whereas the European Union, Russia and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon distanced themselves from blaming either side.

"These people are nothing but thugs, and so ‘Israel' is going to defend its people against terrorists like Hamas," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe at President George W. Bush's Texas ranch.


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