World’s people stand with Gaza

Mobilized on six continents—Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North and South America—millions of people have demanded that Israel cease its attack and lift the siege on Gaza. The protests target the Israeli and often the U.S. embassies and consulates, because everyone knows the U.S. funds, supplies and apologizes for the Israeli war atrocities.

Many protests in Europe also hit the European Union for backing Israel. And in some countries, the protests have also targeted the government for collaborating with the Israeli genocidal assault.

Photo: Jessie Boylan

The blatant and brutal Israeli bombing raids and invasion against the civilian population of Gaza have mobilized a worldwide anti-war movement. Arab and Muslim countries and the immigrant Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities have impelled this struggle, and activists in the anti-war and working-class movements have joined it in growing numbers as the invasion continues.

Some of the same organizations that pulled together massive protests before the invasion of Iraq in 2003—protests the Bush administration ignored while plotting and executing the criminal war on Iraq—helped mobilize solidarity with Gaza. But the worldwide capitalist economic crisis had already led to general strikes in Italy, Portugal and Greece, and major student protests in France and Spain. The failure of the U.S. to conquer Iraq and Afghanistan, and the defeat of Israel in Lebanon had added to the change in the popular mood worldwide.

There was little doubt this sharpening of class struggle would be reflected in the movement protesting the U.S.-Israeli assault on Gaza.

Two of the most massive protest actions were in countries where the government had collaborated with the Israelis before the invasion—Turkey and Lebanon. In Beirut, Hezbollah and others called out hundreds of thousands to prepare for struggle against the Israeli state. One report said almost 1 million people filled Istanbul’s streets on Jan. 4 following Israel’s land invasion. Turkey’s prime minister then said Israel was perpetrating “inhumane actions” which would “lead to its destruction.” (Jerusalem Post, Jan. 5)

In Yemen, another massive action estimated at 1 million in Sana’a demanded the government aid the Palestinians. As in Iran, youths in Yemen were volunteering to go to fight in Gaza like the 1930s International Brigades did in Spain. In Egypt, where the Hosni Mubarak regime is under attack for its role in closing one section of the Gaza boundary, opposition groups spontaneously joined for militant actions, which riot and plainsclothes police viciously repressed.

Within the 1967 borders of the Israeli state, over 100,000 Palestinians demonstrated in the town of Sakhnin, and in Tel Aviv there was a protest on Jan. 3 of 15,000 people, Arabs and Jews, against the Israeli offensive.

Demonstrations against Israel even took place in Jalalabad, in occupied Afghanistan, and in Baghdad and other cities of occupied Iraq. There were other significant protests of tens of thousands in Rabat, Morocco; in Khartoum, Sudan; in Kano City, Nigeria; and in Johannesburg, South Africa. And there were also protests in New Delhi and Kolkata, India, and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

In East Asia there were protests at the Israeli embassies in Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo, Japan, where the governments and the corporate media are both pro-U.S. and pro-Israeli. Similarly, in Australia some 10,000 demonstrated in Sydney on Jan. 4, not only against the Israeli attack, but against the Australian government for supporting Israel.

‘Treat Israel as we treated apartheid South Africa’

Would Israel’s brutal actions—exposed to the world despite the clampdown on coverage—turn it into a pariah nation even in Europe and North America? There are indications this is possible.

Western Europe saw demonstrations in every country and in hundreds of cities, most in the thousands and a few in the tens of thousands. One of the largest was the Jan. 3 protest in London, England, where demonstrators not only marched but threw shoes at 10 Downing Street, the residence of Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

According to a report from the Stop the War Committee, one of the organizers of the protests throughout Britain, at an earlier protest in London, MP George Galloway said, “We should treat Israel as we treated South Africa during apartheid. They should be shunned.” There were also demonstrations in Cardiff, Wales, and Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland, and in a total of 18 other cities on the island from Dec. 28 to Jan. 4.

In nearby Ireland, there were also protests of hundreds or thousands of people in a half dozen cities, including Dublin and Belfast, Limerick and Derry. The Portugal movement, including the national labor confederation, scheduled actions for Jan. 5 and Jan. 8 against Israel. In the Spanish state, where there has always been a strong solidarity movement with the oppressed Arab world, protests of hundreds or some thousands took place in every region—in Bilbao in the Basque Country, Barcelona in Catalonia, Coruña in Galicia, as well as in Valencia, Seville and the capital, Madrid, and even on the islands of Mallorca and Canaries.

In France there were protests throughout the week, the largest one of 25,000 in Paris on Jan. 3, with protests of thousands in another dozen cities across the country. Similarly in Italy, where there was one national protest in Rome on Jan. 3 and many local demonstrations, mostly of thousands, in Vicenza, Milan, Pisa, Genoa, Naples, Florence, Bologna and other cities throughout the week. The most militant actions were in Greece, where youth for the past month have been fighting with the state following the police murder of a young person.

A surprising 8,000 people demonstrated in Vienna, Austria, on Jan. 2. Some 10,000 were in the European Union’s and Belgium’s capital, Brussels, earlier, and there were significant actions in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and in Berlin and Dusseldorf in Germany, where Turkish and Arab immigrants played a strong role. In Scandinavia, there were demonstrations sometimes into the thousands in Copenhagen, Denmark; Oslo, Norway; and in a half-dozen cities in Sweden.

South and North America

In South America, there were protests at least in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Sao Paolo, Brazil; Lima, Peru; Bogotá, Colombia; and Caracas, Venezuela, where one sign made a political pun on a favorite slogan, changing it to “Oh, ah, ¡Hamas no se va!” [meaning Hamas won’t leave instead of Hugo Chávez won’t leave]. Most targeted the Israeli embassies and the U.S. There were also protests to the north in Costa Rica and in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as in Mexico City and Oaxaca in Mexico.

Cuba’s revolutionary government spoke out against the Israeli attack, as did Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. President Lula of Brazil also criticized the Israelis.

In Canada, there was a protest Jan. 3 of 10,000 in Toronto, of 2,000 in the capital, Ottawa, and smaller ones in Vancouver and Winnipeg. In Montreal, Quebec, some 9,000 people marched on Jan. 4, chanting, “Down, down Israel!” and “Shame, shame USA!”