Complied by Hanthala Palestine
Refugees' demonstrations call for end to all contacts with Israel
By Dalal Saoud (UPI, 21 October 2000)
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Thousands of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Syria swarmed into the streets Saturday, calling on Arab leaders meeting in Cairo to immediately sever all contacts with Israel and back the al-Aqsa intifada (uprising) in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In Beirut, Lebanese demonstrators, mostly university students, marched towards the Arab League office, waving Palestinian flags and placards denouncing peace treaties concluded by some Arab countries with Israel. They placed a placard on a donkey that read: "I believe in peace with the Jews," according to witnesses.
In the nearby refugee camp of Chatila, Palestinians burned an Israeli flag as well as U.S.-made products and symbolic coffins of Israeli ambassadors to Jordan and Egypt, the two Arab countries that have peace treaties with the Jewish state. Several hundred Palestinian protestors demonstrated in the refugee camps of Ein el-Helweh and Rashidiyeh in southern Lebanon where they set ablaze Israeli flags and an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
The representative in Lebanon of the Hamas Islamic militant body, Oussama Hamadan, said the jihad (struggle) will continue until the liberation of Palestine and pledged to take revenge on Israel for what he called its massacres of Palestinians. In Syria, the Palestinian refugees staged a protest in the Yarmouk shantytown near the capital, Damascus. They marched inside the camp, shouting for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to expel the Israeli ambassador to Egypt and holding up pictures of al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and others reading, "Let's severe all ties with the Zionist enemy" and "Farewell Oslo (peace accords) and go to Hell." (Thanaa Imam in Damascus contributed to this report)
Florida Protesters Rally for Palestinians
(Reuters, 21 October 2000)
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - More than 125 Islamic religious leaders, community members and students from South Florida rallied on Saturday near the city's Holocaust memorial to show their solidarity with Palestinians. Supporters came in buses from as far away as 100 miles away to chant, pray and voice their anger at the violence in the Middle East. Protesters hammered "tombstones" into a grassy plot to make a point that the war is affecting children. At one point in the rally a group of protesters raised a child, draped in a Palestinian flag, over their heads as if he was dead. "The immediate thing I want to see," said G. Murtaza Kakli, president of the Muslim Community of Palm Beach County, "is Israel withdraw soldiers from the Palestinian area they are occupying at once."
Arab leaders angrily condemned Israel and declared solidarity with Palestinians at a rare Arab League summit in Cairo on Saturday as four more people were killed in fierce clashes in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Three teenagers were among the dead, scores of people were hurt and a 13-year-old youth was seriously wounded by a bullet to the head on a "day of rage" called by militant groups after a U.S.-brokered agreement failed to stop the violence. Saturday's fatalities took the death toll in more than three weeks of Israeli-Palestinian violence to 121, all but eight of them Palestinians or Israeli Arabs.
Anti-Israel protests rock Mombasa
(Times of India, 21 October 2000)
MOMBASA: Thousands of Muslim demonstrators marched through the streets of Kenya's second biggest city to protest against Israel's role in the ongoing violence in the Middle East. Chanting anti-Israel slogans, the demonstrators brought Mombasa's lunch-time traffic to a standstill after midday prayers on Friday. The marchers, in three groups totalling more than 5,000 according to police estimates, chanted the name of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi Islamic underground leader wanted by the United States for the August 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. Some demonstrators carried placards to register their disgust over the failed ceasefire accord this week by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Some placards read: "The Sharm el-Sheikh Conspiracy. The Shame of the Sheikhs. Puppets of the West." One protester, Mohammed Abdalla, told AFP: "We are chanting death unto Israel because the UN only protects the rights of Jews and Christians." Women dressed in black from head to toe also joined in the protest held in the predominantly Muslim city on Kenyatta Day, a holiday commemorating Kenya's independence heroes. (AFP)
Yemenis march for Palestine
(SAPA, 21 October 2000)
SANAA - Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis, most carrying weapons, demonstrated on Saturday in the Yemeni capital in support of the Palestinians, demanding strong decisions from the Arab summit, an AFP reporter said. The official news agency Saba estimated the crowd at one million people and the organisers put the number at 1.5 million, as similar protests were reported across the country. In Sanaa, they called on Arab leaders meeting in Cairo on Saturday and Sunday "to open the path to jihad [holy war] against the Zionist enemy" and to "take strong decisions on the Israeli force of occupation".
A committee led by parliamentary speaker and head of the Islamist Al-Islah party, Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar, organised the protest. He strode out at the head of the demonstration alongside several ministers, MPs and other party leaders. "Our duty is to liberate Jerusalem," demonstrators chanted. "No peace, no normalisation," they shouted, many carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles, some copies of the Muslim holy book the Koran. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh called at the opening of the Arab summit for an international force to be set up to protect the Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He also urged fellow Arab leaders to lift sanctions that have been imposed on Iraq since it invaded Kuwait in 1990.
"I am for international forces to ensure the protection of women and children" in the Palestinian territories, where more than 120 people have been killed since clashes erupted with Israeli forces on 28 September, he said. Saleh also said the Arabs should provide military and financial aid to the Palestinians. "I am for jihad, for resistance, for arms and money to be sent to fight the Jews and not for [verbal] condemnations," the Yemeni leader said. - Sapa-AFP
Demonstrators call for Arabs to cut ties to Israel
by Mohamad Bazzi (Newsday.com, 21 October 2000)
Calling for Arab leaders to cut ties with and boycott Israel, about 150 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched Friday outside the Israeli Consulate and the Arab League offices in Manhattan.
The rally took place on a day when the Palestinian-Israeli truce brokered by President Bill Clinton appeared to have collapsed after as many as 10 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in clashes across the West Bank.
It was the smallest in a series of rallies organized by Arab-Americans and other Palestinian supporters since violence broke out in the Middle East three weeks ago. Last Friday, more than 15,000 Arab-Americans marched on the United Nations after holding an outdoor prayer service.
Organizers of Friday's protest geared their demands to an emergency summit of Arab leaders in Cairo set to begin Saturday.
"We do not want Arab countries buying Israeli products when the Israelis continue to kill Palestinians," said Mary Nazzal, 21, a Palestinian-American and a student at Columbia University.
Out of the 22 members of the Arab League, only Egypt and Jordan have formal ties with Israel. Other Arab countries like Morocco have informal ties.
Echoing recent protests in many Arab capitals, the New York demonstrators called for severing all ties with Israel and for a broad boycott of Israeli products.
A spokesman for the Israeli Consulate said those wanting peace should focus on restarting negotiations.
"We hope that all parties interested in peace will do everything in their power to make a positive contribution to the restoration of calm on the ground, rebuilding trust between their leaders and returning their parties to the negotiating table," said spokesman Yehuda Yaakov.
The demonstrators, standing behind police barricades outside the Arab League offices on Third Avenue and 46th Street, also directed their anger at Arab leaders. They chanted in Arabic, "The Arab traitors must fall." "Come down from your comfortable offices and join us," shouted Aisha Ibrahim, 76, a Palestinian immigrant who lives in New Jersey. "How can you just sit there when our children are being murdered?" The two-day Cairo summit will seek a joint stand against what Arabs see as Israel's failure to honor deals with the Palestinians and its excessive use of force to quell three weeks of protests in which at least 115 people have died, the majority of them Arabs.
Marchers held aloft pictures of Palestinians killed, including Mohammed al-Durra, the 12-year-old boy fatally shot before news cameras while he sought shelter in his father's arms.
"Our youths only have stones," said Samia Halaby, a Palestinian-American from Brooklyn. "But they are still fighting for their land."
Protest Outside Israeli Consulate Decries anti-Palestinian Violence
(Chicago Tribune, October 21, 2000)
More than 1,500 Palestinian activists gathered downtown Friday to demonstrate against the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East. Organizers said the rally was designed to show Palestinian unity and to urge the U.S. government to rethink its pro-Israeli position. The protesters gathered outside Tribune Tower, waving Palestinian flags and holding signs denouncing Israel's role in the violence. At 5 p.m. the protesters marched across the river to the Israeli consulate, 111 E. Wacker Drive, where they stood in the street and chanted. "We want peace and we want to show our solidarity," said Navade Khader, a 21-year-old student at DePaul University. "This rally is full of Indians, Palestinians, Afghanistanians, African Americans, and so many others. They are all here because they believe what Israel is doing is unjust." The rally, the third this month, ended with several speeches from Palestinian and Muslim leaders. Organizers said it likely would be the last of its kind. "We feel that we have gotten our message across," said Raeed Tayeh, the event's coordinator. "Now we need to do more at the practical level. We need to unite to urge our Congressmen that they should stop funding Israel's attacks on our people."
As part of the ongoing campaign against injustice in Palestine, UK organisation Friends of Al-Aqsa organised three demonstrations, in Leicester, Bolton and Swansea. All three passed off peacefully; the officer in charge of the police operation in Leicester praised the conduct of the 5000-strong Muslim protesters, calling the whole day, “brilliant”.
The Chairman of Friends of Al-Aqsa, Ismail Patel, was elated at the response of the community to the crisis in Palestine. “Muslims in three cities of Britain have shown today that they care about the struggle for justice in Palestine,” he said, “and they have done so in a way that illustrates the Islamic concern for the rights and property of others in every respect.” When asked what the organisation will do next, he said that it all depends on how the crisis develops. “We shall use all legal means necessary to liberate Al-Aqsa Mosque from the yoke of Zionism and to obtain justice for our brothers and sisters. Don’t forget, Palestinians have spent the past 52 years oppressed by a country sponsored and armed by Western governments.” Where, he asked, is the British government’s “ethical foreign policy” over Palestine?
Speakers at the Leicester rally included Sheikh Riyadh ul Haq who told the enthralled audience of the need to defend Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque against Zionist aggression. “Religion cannot be taken out of the equation when discussing this issue,” he said, “the rabbis of Israel have made their position clear for all the world to see: they regard the lives of Palestinians – Muslims and Christians alike – as less valuable than those of Jews, and thus expendable.” This, added Sheikh Riyadh, is unacceptable and everyone, of whatever faith, should campaign against such racist attitudes.
It was also pointed out by Ismail Patel that if the Palestinians were ‘black’, the USA and Europe would be leading the call to dismantle the apartheid state of Israel. However, because Palestinians are Arabs, and mostly Muslims, Western taxes pay for Israel’s oppressive policies. The marches were silent to convey the message that: Muslims show respect for all who have lost their lives, men, women and children; Palestinian children have been cruelly silenced; World leaders have largely been silent about the Palestinian cause and the human rights abuses committed by the only so-called democracy in the region. Coffins were carried by marchers at the front of the demonstration, symbols of the young lives cut short by Israeli bombs and bullets.
Hanthala Palestine is a global Palestinian network dedicated to international law and respect for human rights
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