Anti-Israel rallies waged world-wide + photos

Anti-Israel rallies waged world-wide + photos
Sat Jul 19, 2014 13:39:29

Protest rallies against persisting Israeli atrocities in the besieged and densely-populated Palestinian enclave of Gaza have been held across the world’s major cities this week.

Thousands took part in major anti-Israel protest marches and rallies in France, Germany, Argentina, Britain, the US, and other nations throughout the week, RT reported Friday.

The demonstrations took place before the Israeli regime declared that it had begun an extensive ground offensive against the blockaded Palestinian territory – the first time it has done so since 2009.

The British capital of London saw one of the largest turnouts with thousands of protesters rallying outside the Israeli Embassy on Friday.

 

Police surround anti-Israel protesters during a London march

Demonstrators flooded the streets around the building waving placards that read “Gaza: End the Siege" and "Freedom for Palestine."

A group of 17 protesters brought traffic grinding to a halt on Kensington High Street when they scaled one of the city’s iconic double-decker buses. The activists suspended a banner from the vehicle, emblazoned with the slogan “Judaism rejects the Zionist state and condemns its criminal siege and occupation.”

A similar protest rally also took place in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.

In the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires, the Federation of Palestine Entities, the Committee of Solidarity with Palestine and other human rights groups gathered at the Israeli embassy to voice their anger against the climbing death toll of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli regime.

The protesters chanted slogans, waved the Palestinian flag – even spray-painted the Swastika on the embassy’s fence outside. It was a controlled atmosphere as police kept watch.

In France, things turned violent in several cities, including Lyon, Toulouse and the capital Paris, where last Sunday saw more than 10,000 take to the streets – an event that began peacefully, but ended in stone-throwing between pro-Palestinian supporters and elements of pro-Israeli extremist group known as the Jewish Defense League, which operates in the US and some European countries.

People protest on July 16, 2014 in the central French city of Lyon against Israel's deadly bombing of Gaza.


 

Some of pro-Israeli elements that attacked the pro-Palestinian march eventually retreated and holed up in two synagogues heavily guarded by the French police against a furious crowd.

Since the incident, other anti-Israel protest events for the week have been banned by the French police in several cities at the behest of the government, under the pretext of avoiding further violence between rival protesters as the pro-Israeli elements are reportedly a small group that were intent on provoking violence.

France is home to some of the largest Muslim, Jewish and Zionist communities outside their homeland.

The Swedish capital also played host to a tense scene outside the Israeli embassy on Wednesday, as demonstrators called for peace in Gaza.

The demonstrators in Stockholm numbered around 1,300 people, who referred to the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian population in Gaza as  a “massacre.”

Meanwhile, in the US capital of Washington, a larger number of protesters gathered to re-enact the death and destruction brought to Gaza by the Israeli onslaught, putting on a performance pretending to be dead as they lay on the pavement outside the White House.

Protesters in Washington lay on the street symbolizing Palestinians killed by Israeli bombing of Gaza

 

Dozens of activists, wearing keffiyeh scarves and shirts blotted with fake blood attended the spectacle.

“Authentic Rabbis always opposed Zionism,” one Jewish banner read, as a segment of the faith gathered in solidarity.

Yisroel Dovid Weiss of the organization Jews United against Zionism said, “this ideology Zionism is transformation purely from religion to nationalism… it has no basis in the Torah. The Torah in fact clearly states that we are forbidden since the destruction of the temple 2,000 years ago to create our own sovereignty."

Other protest rallies also took place in other cities, such as Australia’s largest city, Sydney, where more than 4,000 people joined the rest of the people across the globe on Sunday to demand the ending of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian protesters rally against the Israeli regime in Sydney, Australia

 

“In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinian,” the Sydney Morning Herald reported them as saying.

“This is against UN laws but the UN is not doing anything about it … That’s why we are here – to make the world aware that injustice is happening and you cannot sit there and just ignore it,” a protester was quoted as saying in a local newspaper.

Also in Germany, an anti-war march took place as around 150 activists walked with Palestinian flags covered in red hand prints. Some held Israeli flags as people chanted, “We refuse to be enemies – stop the war!”

More than 300 Palestinians have so far been reported killed and over 2000 more injured as the Zionist onslaught in Gaza continues unabated.

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