Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators in honor of the anniversary of the Deir Yassin massacre

WASHINGTON, April 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Hundreds of pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrators clogged downtown San Francisco late Friday with competing protests over the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, as simultaneous rallies were held in New York and Washington D.C. in honor of the anniversary of the Deir Yassin massacre. 

San Francisco city authorities erected metal barricades and deployed police on foot and horseback to separate the two demonstrations, at which protestors vented their growing rage over Israel's incursions into Palestinian territory and the attacks on Israelis. 

A coalition of pro-Palestinian groups last week planned the San Francisco protest, which was one of several across the United States Friday. 

According to news reports, more 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters marched in downtown New York City Friday, while the nearby borough of Brooklyn, New York and the suburb of Patterson, New Jersey each saw a few hundred Palestinian sympathizers rally on Friday. 

There was also a demonstration Friday at the U.S. State Department in Washington D.C. 

About 500 Palestinian supporters were met at the Israeli consulate in San Francisco by more than 300 supporters of Israel, who had arrived at the protest two hours earlier to stage a counter-demonstration. 

The pro-Israeli demonstrators shouted pro-Israel slogans and hoisted large blue-and-white Israeli flags and signs that said "Ariel Sharon, We Are With You." 

For their part, pro-Palestinian activists countered with chants of "shame, shame, shame on you" and “Wanted for War Crimes” posters with Sharon’s face plastered on the front. 

At the rallies in New York and Washington, pro-Palestinian protestors called on the U.S. to end the illegal occupation of Palestine and to stop U.S. funding of the aggressions. 

Other rallies are set to take place across the country almost everyday including one on Saturday at a college campus in North Carolina and a major national rally to take place in Washington during Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s upcoming visit to the U.S. 

There is also a demonstration set to take place on April 15, “Tax Day” in the Washington D.C. in order to protest American tax dollar support for the continued aggressions on and occupation of the Palestinians. 


With additional reporting by Neveen A. Salem, IOL Washington Correspondent