More Protests in Lebanon in Solidarity with Gaza

2-1-2008

For the seventh consecutive day, Lebanon witnessed more protests in solidarity with Gaza against Zionist criminality, just as the Arab and Islamic worlds were responding to Hamas' call for a "day of wrath" after Friday prayers.

The US embassy, located in Awkar, north of Beirut, was Friday the center of a protest organized by the Islamic Jamaa in solidarity with the Gaza Strip. Amid severe security precautions, Lebanese women and children waved Palestinian flags and chanted anti-US and anti-"Israel" slogans.
The protesters called on Arabs to break their silence, noting that silence was a crime in itself. They stressed the dire need to seek prompt solutions and ways to stop the ongoing "Israeli" aggression as soon as possible.

On Wednesday, the American embassy in Beirut sent emails to its citizens across the globe informing them that several protests had occurred "with little or no warning in Lebanon" and that they should "exercise caution."

"Americans are advised that even the most peaceful assembly can quickly turn violent. Americans should avoid areas where protests and demonstrations are occurring," the warden's message said.
Another symbolic demonstration took place outside the Egyptian embassy in Beirut to protest Cairo's insistence on keeping the Rafah crossing closed. The demonstrators tied boots to the barbed wire established by the security forces near the embassy. One demonstrator said that "these boots are to remind some Arab regimes of the day Iraqi journalist Muntazar Zubeidi forced US president to duck under his shoes and that some Arab leaders ought to learn lessons from this incident and join forces with the axis-of-right against "Israel" and its master the US."