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WORLD> Photo
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Thousands take to the streets to protest Israel
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-28 21:44
"What else do they (Israelis and Americans) want, to come here and kill us?" he said. The US Embassy in Jordan issued an advisory warning Americans to avoid areas of demonstrations. Iran's president, who has blasted Israel in speeches and said it should be "wiped off the map," joined those condemning the Israeli strikes, calling them "criminal." A state TV report late Saturday quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Iran will stand by the Palestinians. Several hundred Iranian students and lawmakers held separate protests Sunday at a Tehran square and outside the UN building in the capital. Iran's Red Crescent Society is also planning to send a ship loaded with medicine, food and clothing to Gaza. In the normally politically placid streets of glitzy Dubai, hundreds of demonstrators - some draped in Palestinian flags - gathered at the Palestinian consulate. Police prevented several attempts by protesters to move their demonstration from inside the consulate perimeter to the streets outside. Majdei Mansour, 30, said he came to show support for his fellow countrymen. The Dubai resident has family still living in Gaza but said he's been unable to contact them since the latest fighting. "These protests all over the world will call international attention to the cause of Gaza," Mansour said. "This is a time for the Palestinians and Arabs to unite to fight against a common enemy." Demonstrations are rare in Dubai, one of seven states that make up the United Arab Emirates. The country does not have official diplomatic relations with Israel. In Iraq, a suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up amid a crowd of about 1,300 demonstrators in Mosul who were protesting Israel's airstrikes on Gaza, killing one demonstrator and wounding 16 others, Iraqi police said. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack. Iraq's government also condemned the airstrikes on Gaza. Iraq's top Shiitthe big tragedy they are facing," he said in a statement released by office in Najaf. "Now more than at any other time, both Arab and Islamic nations are required to take a practical stance for the sake of stopping this repeated aggression and to break the unfair besieging of these brave people," the statement said, without giving details of the proposed stance. About 100 people took to the streets in Baghdad's largest Palestinian neighborhood to protest the attacks. In Baladiyat, a Baghdad district that is home to many Palestinians given refuge in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, men waved banners and condemned Arab nations for not doing enough to support Palestinians. "We have been waiting for an action from Arab leaders for almost 60 years," Jaleel al-Qasus, the Palestinian envoy to Iraq, said during the protest of several hundred people. "Our efforts have been in vain." |
