Vol. 73/No. 3      January 26, 2009

In Egypt demonstrations took place after Friday prayers in several cities and towns, with protesters demanding the Egyptian government end its complicity with Tel Aviv’s aggression. Police broke up demonstrations in the Sinai Peninsula, El Arish, and Tanta. Fifty thousand marched in Alexandria.

A group of demonstrators briefly blocked a bridge over the Suez Canal. “We are a people’s convoy demanding that the Egyptian government open the border” to the Gaza Strip, said 23-year-old Salma Said.

In east Jerusalem and the West Bank several thousand, mostly Palestinians, protested. In Jerusalem’s Old City women and children held a demonstration. At the Temple Mount police broke up another protest by women. The Israeli government banned all men under the age of 50 from joining Friday prayers at the site out of fear of large demonstrations. About 1,000 Palestinians marched in Hebron and there were skirmishes with Israeli soldiers at other points in the West Bank.

Some 2,000 people marched in Karachi, Pakistan, and 2,500 in Beirut, Lebanon. In Damascus, Syria, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators chanted, “Down, down with the Arab rulers, the collaborators!” The Damascus action was organized by the Syrian government, which has sought to distance itself from those Arab regimes tacitly approving the Israeli assault on Gaza. A car caravan of 200 vehicles from Turkey drove to the Syrian border to join pro-Palestinian marchers there. Demonstrations took place in Jakarta, Indonesia; Manila, Philippines; Hong Kong; and Algiers, Algeria, as well.

Protests were also held across Europe, the United States, New Zealand, and Canada. Several hundred thousand marched in Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Norway, Greece, Austria, and the United Kingdom.

Nuzhat Sarfraz, who came with her family to the London demonstration of more than 20,000, said, “For me this is a secular issue. Muslims, Arabs, and Jews have lived together.” Bhagwant Singh, originally from the Punjab, marched with a trade union banner in the Indian Workers Association contingent. “We are here to show solidarity with the people,” he said. More than 4,000 marched in Edinburgh.

In the United States, several thousand marched in San Francisco and hundreds in Atlanta; Seattle; Portland, Oregon; Orlando, Florida; and other cities.

Celia Pugh, Pete Clifford, Christine Beresford, Terry Coggan, Michel Prairie, Lisa Potash, Eric Simpson, and Edwin Fruit contributed to this article.
 
 
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