Thousands across the world march in protest against Israeli attacks
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Demonstrators waving flags atop the arches of Toronto City Hall as thousands gathered in the Canadian city on Saturday to show their support for the people of Palestine.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
NEW YORK • Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied in cities across North America, calling for an end to Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip amid the worst violence in years between the Jewish state and Islamist militants.
About 2,000 people turned out last Saturday in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn in New York, chanting "Free, free Palestine" and "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free".
They waved Palestinian flags and held placards that read "End Israeli Apartheid" and "Freedom for Gaza". A few dozen police officers looked on at the peaceful protest, dubbed Defend Palestine.
The marches, which also took place in Boston, Washington, Toronto and Montreal, came amid the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence since a 2014 war in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden spoke on Saturday with his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts, expressing his "grave concern" over six days of violence that left scores dead or wounded.
He expressed Washington's "strong commitment to a negotiated two-state solution as the best path to reach a just and lasting resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict", the White House said.
The protests were held on the anniversary of Nakba Day, or "catastrophe day", that saw hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced during the creation of Israel in 1947-1948.
In Europe, thousands also marched in support of Palestinians in major cities including London, Berlin, Madrid and Paris.
In London, several thousand protesters carrying placards reading "Stop Bombing Gaza" and chanting "Free Palestine" converged on Marble Arch, near the British capital's Hyde Park, to march towards the Israeli embassy. Packed crowds stretched all along Kensington's High Street where the embassy is located.
"This time is different. This time we will not be denied any more. We are united. We have had enough of oppression," Palestinian Ambassador Husam Zomlot told the demonstrators.
In Madrid, some 2,500 people, many of them young people wrapped in Palestinian flags, marched to the Puerta del Sol plaza in the city centre.
Thousands marched in Berlin and other German cities following a call by the Samidoun collective, or Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. Three marches were authorised in Berlin's working class Neukoelln southern district, home to large numbers of people with Turkish and Arabic roots.
The protesters shouted "Boycott Israel" and threw paving stones and bottles at the police, leading to several arrests.
Other protests were also held in Frankfurt, Leipzig and Hamburg.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
