Email this article
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Oct. 26, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------From Egypt to Abu Dhabi
Roundup of solidarity with Palestine
By Joyce Chediac
The following sampling of protests, gathered from Middle Eastern and Western news sources, indicates the mood in the Arab world:
Thousands of Egyptian protesters rushed out of Oct. 13 prayers at Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque to march in the streets denouncing Israel's air, land and sea attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
"Where is the Egyptian army?" they shouted, as they demanded to be able to fight for Palestine. Protesters burned Israeli and U.S. flags and called for the cancellation of the 21-year-old peace treaty with Israel.
Students from Cairo University protested the Oct. 16-17 Sharm al-Sheik summit meeting as a "betrayal of all the Palestinian martyrs." Banners demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak not be allowed on Egyptian soil. And students chanted, "Mubarak, you coward. You are an agent for America." Police arrested 65 people trying to force their way out of the university's gates toward the nearby Israeli embassy.
Hundreds of intellectuals and journalists were expected to participate in a sit-down strike called by the Press Syndicate to protest holding the summit on Egyptian soil. The opposition Al-Ababi newspaper said the purpose of "the Sharm el-Sheik summit is to abort the Arab people's uprising."
Every day, some 200 Egyptian people donate blood for wounded Palestinians. Cairo parents bring their children to shake hands with wounded Palestinians brought to Egypt for treatment.
Calls for the Arab countries to use their oil resources and economic clout to counter Israeli attacks on Palestinians resounded across Lebanon on Oct. 13, along with a denunciation of all ties and negotiations with Israel and demands for a boycott on U.S. goods. Daily demonstrations continue throughout Lebanon.
The Hezbollah movement there captured a fourth Israeli soldier, this time a colonel, as a "gift" to the Palestinian resistance.
Palestinians of the Druze religious denomination are the only Palestinians living within Israeli borders who serve in the Israeli military. Lebanese Druze leaders issued a statement calling on their Palestinian Druze brothers in the Israeli army to reject compulsory military service, mutiny and desert.
In Damascus, Syria, where protests have occurred daily, police used tear gas to disperse 2,000 angry people who tried to reach the U.S. Embassy Oct. 13. The demonstrators burned U.S. and Israeli flags and implored President Bashar Assad to open the borders for attacks on Israel.
Iraq's governing Ba'ath Party estimated that a million Iraqi men and women have volunteered to fight alongside the Palestinians. A group of children waving Palestinian flags carried models of the Scud missiles that Iraq fired on Israeli cities during the 1991 Gulf War, while other protestors torched Israeli and U.S. flags. "I'm doing this for Jerusalem and for Mohammed al-Durra," said 12-year old Mohammed Awad, referring to a Palestinian boy who was killed by Israeli soldiers.
Saudi Arabian women in Jidda, from some of the country's richest families, walked through the streets in silent protest against Israeli murder of Palestinians. Such actions are very rare.
Oman closed its commercial representation in Tel Aviv and Israel's trade office in Muscat. Demonstrators in Qatar called on their government to follow suit, shouting, "If Oman has done it, Qatar must do it."
There was even a protest in Kuwait.
A 12-hour telethon led by Abu Dhabi Television and involving at least 11 Arab stations raised more than $28 million by Oct. 13 to support the Palestinian people.
Yemen's leader, Ali Abdallah Saleh, said he wished his country had a common border with the West Bank or Gaza Strip so it could help the Palestinians fight Israel.
After riot police repeatedly used tear gas against demonstrators trying to reach the Israeli embassy, all protests in Jordan were banned. As a concession Jordan has delayed sending its representative to Israel.
Shots fired across the border into Israel wounded two Israeli soldiers. More than half of Jordan's population is Palestinian. When someone is killed on the West Bank, relatives receive condolences in Jordan.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)HOME :: U.S. NEWS :: WORLD NEWS :: EDITORIALS :: SUBSCRIBE :: DONATE