WASHINGTON: Tens of thousands of protesters marched in cities around the world over the weekend calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon as the war in the Palestinian territory neared the one-year mark. Demonstrations were held in major cities from Jakarta to Istanbul to Rabat on Sunday, and followed protests on Saturday in major European capitals as well as Washington and New York. "We are here to support the Palestinian resistance,” said protester Ahmet Unal in Istanbul, where thousands assembled.
In Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, at least 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered on Sunday morning near the US embassy demanding that Washington stop supplying weapons to the Zionist entity. In Sydney, thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered ahead of the Oct 7 anniversary, chanting and waving Lebanese and Palestinian flags amid a heavy police presence.
In Rabat, thousands of Moroccans marched, calling for a halt to the violence in Gaza and Lebanon, in one of the largest protests in the country since the beginning of the war in Gaza. Protesters demanded an end to Morocco’s diplomatic ties with the Zionist entity, chanting "no to normalization, Palestine is not for sale,” referring
to Morocco’s establishment of diplomatic relations with the Zionist entity. "We consider Palestine to be a national cause,” Khadija Mokhtari, a 56-year-old retiree living in the capital, told AFP at the protest near parliament.
In Washington, more than a thousand protesters demonstrated outside the White House, demanding the United States, the Zionist entity’s top military supplier, stop providing weapons and aid to the Zionist entity. One man attempted to set himself on fire, AFP journalists saw, succeeding in lighting his left arm ablaze before bystanders and police extinguished the flames. Thousands of pro-Palestinian supporters also gathered in cities across Europe, Africa, Australia and the Americas to demand an end to the conflict, which has killed nearly 42,000 people in Gaza.
Candlelight vigils are set to take place on the Oct 7 anniversary on Monday. The Zionist entity’s military offensive has killed at least 41,870 people in Gaza, most of them civilians. Underlining international polarization over events in the Middle East, demonstrations in support of both the Zionist entity and the Palestinians are planned worldwide — sometimes with rival events scheduled in the same city.
A pro-Palestinian protest in Rome drew thousands of people. At least one policeman was wounded and two protestors were detained, AFP journalists said. "(The Zionist entity) is a criminal state!” the demonstrators shouted. In Berlin, police said they had detained 26 people who shouted insults at a pro-Zionist commemoration attended by around 650 people. Meanwhile, a pro-Palestinian demonstration drew just over 1,000 protestors in the German capital, police said.
At the "National March for Palestine” in London, chants of "stop bombing civilians” were joined by shouts of "hands off Lebanon”. Zackerea Bakir, 28, said he has attended dozens of marches around the United Kingdom. Large numbers continue to turn up because "everyone wants a change”, he told AFP. "It’s continuing to just get worse and worse, and yet nothing seems to be changing,” said Bakir, joined at the rally by his mother and brother. At least 15 people were arrested.
In Dublin, several hundred people took to the streets, waving Palestinian flags and chanting: "Ceasefire now!”. In France, thousands of people marched in Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Strasbourg to express solidarity with Palestinians, AFP journalists said. Around 5,000 people joined a pro-Palestinian protest in Madrid, brandishing signs with messages such as "Boycott (the Zionist entity)”.
A pro-Palestinian demonstration in the Swiss city of Basel drew several thousand people, the Keystone-ATS news agency reported. Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators also marched on the Zionist embassy in Athens, which was heavily guarded by riot police. In Cape Town in South Africa, hundreds walked to parliament, chanting: "(The Zionist entity) is a racist state” and "We are all Palestinian.” Pro-Gaza marches were also held in Johannesburg and Durban.
In Caracas, hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested outside the United Nations’s headquarters for Venezuela, carrying a giant Palestinian flag. They delivered a petition to the UN calling for an end to the genocide of the Palestinians. "Where are the UN peacekeepers? Why haven’t they intervened?” university professor Jesus Reyes, 53, told AFP.
In Indonesia, more than a thousand people gathered outside the US embassy in Jakarta for a rally on Sunday morning. Organizers and public figures delivered speeches from a stage, calling for an independent Palestine and for the incoming Indonesian government to refuse the normalization of relations with the Zionist entity. In Australia, thousands of pro-Palestinian protestors thronged the streets of Sydney and other major Australian cities, holding placards that read "stop arming (the Zionist entity)”. Other pro-Palestinian protests were planned over the weekend and on Monday in cities including New York, Sydney, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Manila and Karachi. – Agencies