DUBAI: As Israel continues its aggression on Gaza, protests across the world are getting more pronounced.
In UAE, thousands of residents took part in several marches held yesterday to protest the ongoing Israeli bombardment.
More than 15,000 people took part in the demonstrations held in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Ras Al-Khaimah. Carrying placards showing pictures of babies killed during the onslaught on Gaza, protesters demanded international action to stop Israeli aggression.
Sharjah witnessed the biggest demonstration where more than 9,000 people attended. Under heavy police presence, the demonstrators, led by representatives from the emirate’s NGOs, marched through the Sharjah Corniche starting from the Al-Noor Mosque. The protestors, many of whom were women and children, were calling for a jihad to liberate the Palestinian territories.
Addressing the crowds, Mohammed Al-Rokn, an Emirati human rights activist, blasted the international community for keeping silence while innocent civilians were being slaughtered.
“This is the beginning of changing the status quo,” he said. “The Israeli Army always boasts that they defeated three Arab armies in six days and occupied the Palestinian land in a matter of days. But it has now taken them more than two weeks to occupy a few meters of Gaza.” In Egypt, more than 50,000 people rallied after Friday prayers to condemn Israel’s ongoing assaults, in the biggest such protest of the day worldwide. Legislators affiliated with the opposition Muslim Brotherhood led the protest in the ancient Mediterranean port city of Alexandria that echoed to such slogans as “Down with Israel and with every collaborator.”
Riot police were seen by an AFP correspondent in Alexandria trying to prevent the demonstration from taking place — only to give up because of the sheer numbers of protesters.
In the Egyptian capital, riot police foiled demonstrations outside a number of mosques. In the West Bank city of Ramallah, fistfights broke out between supporters of Hamas and the rival Fatah faction during a “day of wrath” protest, prompting police to intervene with tear gas and baton charges. Thirteen people were taken to hospital, and several others detained.
Some 3,000 demonstrated at the behest of Hamas in Hebron, throwing stones at Israeli soldiers who responded with rubber bullets. Several thousands, meanwhile, shouted “Death to Israel” in Nablus, while young Palestinians clashed with police in Jerusalem.
In Kuwait, around 3,000 gathered outside Parliament and the seat of government, shouting “shame, shame” against Arab inaction vis-a-vis Gaza.
In Jordan, police stopped more than 2,000 demonstrators from reaching the Israeli Embassy in the capital Amman. The crowd had set off from Friday prayers at the Kaloti mosque, about a kilometer away.
The protesters — wearing checkered Palestinian kaffiyehs (scarves), and carrying Palestinian and Jordanian flags — chanted “No Israeli Embassy on Arab territory.” Unable to reach the embassy, protesters instead set up a symbolic cemetery in memory of the nearly 800 killed so far in Gaza, with the word “Gazan” scrawled on each mock grave.
In Europe, more than 2,000 demonstrated in Athens and Thessaloniki at the behest of the Greek Communist Party, setting fire to the US and EU flags outside the US Embassy and the Israeli flag outside the Israeli mission.
Smaller protests, varying from several dozen to several hundred people, took place in Bucharest, Vienna, Prague, and The Hague where the Dutch Parliament’s foreign affairs committee debated the Gaza conflict.
In Asia, about 200 women protested outside the Egyptian Embassy in Jakarta, brandishing posters of dead and wounded Palestinian children and urging Egypt to open its border with Gaza.
“As mothers, we feel sad for the women who lost their children in Palestine,” said Nani Handayani, of women’s welfare group Salimah or Muslim Sisterhood. “They are in our prayers.”
— With input from agencies
