Saturday, August 5, 2006

Global Marches Protest Israeli Offensive

"Thousands of people marched in Britain, South Africa and Egypt Saturday to protest the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, some demanding an immediate halt to the fighting and others pressing for sanctions against Israel.

Police in London said 20,000 people joined a march past the U.S. Embassy to Parliament. Organizers — a coalition of peace, Muslim, Palestinian and Lebanese groups — put the turnout at more than 100,000.
"There should be an immediate cease-fire," said Jeremy Corbyn, a lawmaker from British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party, adding "the government's line is incomprehensibly wrong."

In South Africa, thousands marched through Cape Town to Parliament to demand sanctions against Israel.
Demonstrators carried pictures of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. Some carried posters declaring, "Israel the new Nazis."
Protesters urged the South African government to recall its ambassador from Israel and sever diplomatic ties, impose trade sanctions, and prosecute South Africans who serve in the Israeli defense force.

More than 2000 people marched in downtown Cairo, demanding authorities allow them to fight in Lebanon, police said. The protest was organized by Egypt's banned, but tolerated, main opposition Muslim Brotherhood and the Lawyers Syndicate, the national attorneys' union."

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