DUBAI: More than 200 people held a candlelight vigil here on New Year’s Eve to show their solidarity with the beleaguered people of Gaza.
The vigil was held at a parking lot in the Jumeirah Beach Residence, one of the new posh areas in Dubai. This was the third peaceful protest held in Dubai to denounce Israel’s aerial bombardment of one of the world’s most densely populated areas. On Monday around 2,000 people had gathered at the Palestinian Consulate demanding an end to the massacre of innocent civilians.
In the meantime, the police canceled a planned Gaza solidarity march in Sharjah as the organizers had failed to get permission to hold the event. Hundreds of families had turned up on Wednesday, at the Al-Noor Mosque in Khaled Lagoon Cornish, but were told to leave the area, which was cordoned off, by tens of policemen.
Many of the attendees were incensed by the police’s demand to the protesters to remove the Palestinian black-and-white kafiyah. Noura Al-Shamsi, a high school student, demanded to know why the police was not allowing them to protest. Al-Shamsi, an Emarati citizen, said that she and her friends had worked hard at preparing placards denouncing the killings. She complained that the police had taken away her placards. “Our brothers and sisters in Palestine are being slaughtered while we are expected to sit silent without even a protest,” she said. Najla, an Emarati university student, was saddened that she was not allowed to protest. “We came here today to show our solidarity with the Gazans,” she said. “We want them to know that their Emarati brothers and sisters have not forgotten them and that we are praying for them.”
The march was to start after Maghreb prayer. Many of the protestors refused to leave and stayed inside the mosque where representatives from Sharjah’s NGO’s gave speeches. More than 300 men, more than half of who were Emaratis, were inside the mosque. They said prayers for the Gazans and dispersed peacefully after Isha prayer.
