Gaza attacks: Israeli strikes spark protests across world

Telegraph.co.uk
Dec. 29, 2008

Israeli attacks on Gaza have triggered protests in more than a dozen countries around the world.

In one of the largest protests, hundreds of demonstrators briefly scuffled with police outside the Israeli embassy in London.

Several hundred protesters were initially kept behind metal barriers across from the embassy in the up-scale central London district of Kensington, but surged forward across the road towards the front gates.

Protesters also have taken to the streets in Denmark, France, Italy and Spain, according to news reports. There also were reports of demonstrations in Caracas, Venezuela.

In London, police on horseback moved in to try to disperse the crowd, and confused scuffles broke out among security forces and protestors, brandishing placards reading "Free Palestine" and "Stop starving the Palestinians".

At one point an Israeli flag was burned in the crowd, while other placards read "Stop the Holocaust in Gaza" and "End the siege on Gaza". Scotland Yard reported no arrests.

A police spokeswoman said there were some 600 demonstrators. Some two hours after the rally started, protestors were still blocking the road Monday evening and shouting in a tense stand-off with police as night fell.

Israeli military jets have pounded Islamist movement Hamas targets in densely-populated Gaza for three days, killing at least 345 people and drawing outrage and calls for restraint from around the world.

In Greece, riot police fired tear gas to repel protesters hurling rocks at the Israeli Embassy in Athens.

More than 3,000 demonstrators waving Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Israeli and anti-US slogans converged on the Israeli Embassy north of the city center in separate demonstrations and rallies organized by Greek left-wing parties and Arab groups.

Hundreds of demonstrators also marched through Nordic cities and towns, setting Israeli flags alight and chanting "Israel, murderer."

In Stockholm, organisers said some 1,000 people turned out while police said around 500 had gathered in one of the Swedish capital's main squares before marching to the Israeli embassy.

The demonstrators, mainly Muslim immigrants to Sweden, waved banners and shouted "Close the embassy", "Gaza solidarity" and "Israel, murderer", and set fire to an Israeli flag painted with a swastika.

"Enough blood! We've seen enough," Omar Mustafa, an organiser with the Swedish Islamic Association, said.

"We don't see any reaction from the rest of the world while there is a massacre going on," he added.

Police in Germany said about 2,000 protesters marched peacefully down Berlin's Kurfuerstendamm Boulevard and dispersed after about three hours.

Iranian media reported that thousands took part in anti-Israel demonstrations in Tehran on Monday, which the government declared a day of mourning for the Palestinians in Gaza.

In the Muslim world, demonstrations also were held in Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Libya and Bahrain, the BBC and other news outlets reported.

Protests were also held in Israel, where students at universities in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem demonstrated against the Israeli military operation, ynetnews.com reported.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4016850/Gaza-attacks-Israeli-strikes-spark-protests-across-world.html