Protests demand end to Israeli offensive
Protesters in Cairo demanded that Egyptian authorities let them fight in Lebanon with Hezbollah militants battling Israeli forces.
Lebanese, Hezbollah and Palestinian flags filled Casablanca yesterday as tens of thousands of Moroccans marched in protest at Israeli offensives in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
Marchers also took to the streets of Brussels, and had earlier demonstrated in cities across Indonesia, a day after similar protests in London.
Police in London said 20,000 people joined a march past the US Embassy to Parliament. Organisers put the turnout at more than 100,000.
Some chanted anti-Israeli and pro-Hezbollah slogans and children at the head of the march sang: “Two, four, six, eight, Israel is a terrorist state.”
Campaigner Bianca Jagger voiced unease at some of the anti-Israel rhetoric. The former wife of rocker Mick Jagger said the protest was not hostile to Israel.
“I support the existence of Israel and I think we are wrong to say otherwise,” she said. “But watching the images of innocent children dying as we have been for the last 24 days does not promote a peaceful solution in the region.”
More than 2,000 people marched in Cairo, demanding authorities allow them fight in Lebanon, police said. The crowd shouted anti-Israel slogans and vowed to support the guerrillas.
The protest was organised by Egypt’s banned, but tolerated, main opposition Muslim Brotherhood and the Lawyers’ Syndicate, the national attorneys’ union.
In Casablanca, many held up photographs of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as they chanted support for the guerrillas.
“O dear Nasrallah, destroy Tel Aviv,” they cried.
Security sources put the number at the march at about 70,000. Organisers said up to one million people attended.
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