CAIRO, 24 February 2004 — People across the Arab world demonstrated yesterday against the Israeli construction of a security barrier in the West Bank.

“We oppose the racist wall!” chanted protesters in the center of Cairo, where opposition parties and activists came together to mark the start of hearings on the barrier at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.

About 2,000 Palestinians marched through the refugee camp of Ein El-Hilweh in southern Lebanon, carrying pictures of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who described the barrier Monday as “another Berlin Wall.”

The Palestinians say the 740-km barrier — a line of walls, fences and trenches — amounts to a land grab. It cuts deep into the West Bank to unite Jewish settlements with Israel’s own territory. Israel says the barrier, which is about one-third complete, will protect it against Palestinian bombers.

In Damascus, courts fell silent for an hour as the Syrian Bar Association called a stoppage in solidarity with the Palestinian objections to the barrier. Some 80 Syrians and Palestinians staged a sit-in in front of the European Commission offices.

In Beirut, about 500 Palestinian students sat waving Palestinian and Lebanese flags outside United Nations House. They also held placards with slogans such as “No, to the racist wall” and “Bush + Sharon terrorism,” referring to US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The protesters handed in a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that said the barrier was “not more than a deformed copy of the Berlin Wall and a repeat of the apartheid regime which governed South Africa.”

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei led thousands of protesters to the base of the eight-meter wall that snakes through the heart of Abu Dis, as rock-hurling youths fought running street battles with troops firing off volleys of rubber bullets and tear gas canisters.

Qorei charged Israel was using security as a pretext. As a helicopter hovering overhead muffled his words, he proclaimed, “To all those who want peace in Israel, we say that the wall has not been built for security purposes but to steal our land and shut in 250,000 Palestinians. We will never accept it.”

Thousands protested in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat urged his people in a televised address to speak out against the barrier. Traffic was halted, and thousands of civil servants left their desks to attend a protest rally.

Similar protests were held in the towns of Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem, Bethlehem and Hebron, where around 100 stone-throwing teenagers clashed with the army. Israeli soldiers also used teargas to break up demonstrations in Bethlehem and at Deir Al-Ghossum, near Tulkarem.

Demonstrations spread to the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain Heloue in southern Lebanon, where about 4,000 people, predominantly school pupils, brandished portraits of Arafat and shouted slogans against “the wall of racist segregation.”

In the Egyptian capital, a ring of about 350 riot police with black helmets and long truncheons confined the demonstrators to a corner of Tahrir Square. One protester laid out a display of photos of Palestinians climbing the unfinished barrier or throwing a bundle of goods to a friend on the other side.

The protesters took turns at the megaphone, leading the crowd in chants such as “Sharon, you villain, we will drag you by the chain!”

In Amman, Jordan, more than 100 people protested for an hour in front of the UN offices.