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Thousands Demonstrate In European Cities In Support Of Palestinians
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| People carry banner with pictures of Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Adolf Hitler during a demonstration in central Amsterdam |
LONDON, April 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Thousands gathered in European cities Saturday in new protests against Israel's continuing military offensive in Palestinian territories and in support of the Palestinian people.
Around 3,000 people marched in Nice, the biggest city on the French Riviera, Sunday to show their support of the Palestinians and their anger at Israel and the United States, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The demonstration, organized by the region's associations representing France's five million-strong Muslim community, were vocal in decrying the ongoing military campaign ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that has killed hundreds of Palestinians.
The crowd was shouting "To resist is to exist" and "Too many dead" and many yelled "Bush, Sharon: murderers".
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| A young man holding a Palestinian flag stands on the head of one of the lions in Trafalgar Square, in central London |
Responding to a call from the Association of British Muslims, between 10, 000 and 15,000 people according to police estimates marched through central London in what a spokesman described as one of the largest demonstrations seen in the capital in the last three years, AFP reported.
Organizers, however, placed the number of marchers at closer to 30,000 people.
Such a claim appeared to receive the backing of a veteran of London political rallies, the former Labor party minister Tony Benn.
"This is one of the largest demonstrations I have ever seen here," Benn told the crowd.
He added: "Those who come to support the Palestinians here today form the overwhelming majority of the population of the world.”
Demonstrators shouted "Down with Israel" and "Jihad", the traditional Muslim appeal for holy war, while some protestors burned Israeli and U.S. flags.
Police though said the march had been peaceful and no arrests had been made.
"This whole event is in support of the plight of the Palestinian people and to show that a huge proportion of the British people are against the passive stance of the international community and our government in particular against what is happening," Anas Altikriti, from the Association of British Muslims said.
In Germany too, many cities witnessed protests in solidarity with the Palestinians with the largest show of force in Berlin, where more than 11,000 people set off from the capital's famous Alexanderplatz towards an area close to where the Berlin Wall once stood.
Similar demonstrations were held across the country Saturday with around 7, 000 gathering in Frankfurt, around 5,000 in Duesseldorf and hundreds in other German cities.
Like the London demonstrations, the German protests passed off virtually without incident, with police intervening in the Berlin march only when a group of demonstrators began to hurl stones at the British embassy.
In Holland, more than 10,000 people backed a call from the Dutch Committee for Palestine to attend a demonstration in Amsterdam although the protest ended on a sour note with youths throwing stones and bottles at police.
Nine people were arrested at the protest according to reports from the Dutch news agency ANP.
With one of the largest Muslim populations in Europe, France also saw numerous demonstrations of support for the Palestinians on Saturday.
Around 600 people turned out in the eastern city of Lyon and similar numbers were recorded in Saint Etienne in the center of the country.
In Turkey's largest city of Istanbul, thousands protested at a rally at which the leader of the country's Islamic party condemned Israel's "state terrorism and genocide."
Recai Kutan told the crowd that "he had nothing against the Jewish people", but would rise up against the Israeli leadership and particularly the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whom he described as "the butcher of Beirut".
According to the Anatolia news agency, the demonstration ended with "a prayer for peace in Palestine".
A similar prayer was also offered up by the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade, which called for peace "for all the residents of Israel, so to speak Palestine", in a statement issued Saturday and reported by the Tanjug agency.
"We pray for justice, the love of God and for peace for all the inhabitants of Israel, so to speak Palestine," the statement said.
"We call on the leaders in the country and the world powers to do all that is possible to quickly re-establish peace in the biblical areas".
Israel launched a wide scale military offensive into Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip on March 29, in what it claimed was an attempt to root out resistance activists responsible for a wave of retaliatory attacks against its populations.
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