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Thousands worldwide protest attacks
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Europe and the United States, to march against Israel's war on Lebanon
- Agencies
- Published: 00:00 July 23, 2006
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Europe and the United States, to march against Israel's war on Lebanon and the refusal of the US and British governments to condemn it.
Police said 7,000 people joined the London protest which ran from the banks of the Thames to Hyde Park through torrential rain. Many people carried placards condemning "Israeli crimes in Lebanon."
"We are all Hezbollah. Boycott Israel" read one. "Axis of evil: Bush, Blair, Olmert," read another, referring to the political leaders of the United States, Britain and Israel.
Thousands more demonstrators lined the streets of Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle and Sheffield in the UK, and Dam Square, Amsterdam.
In the United States, demonstrators gathered in downtown Chicago. "The right to fight or the right to smite," said protester?s banners. Others said, "Not with our money, not in our name."
"I'm outraged as an American, I'm outraged as a human being at what is happening to the people of Lebanon," said Dale Lehman, a 60-year-old Jewish resident of Chicago.
Nader Ismail, a computer engineer of Palestinian origin resident in Chicago for a decade, said he had come to protest the "collective punishment inflicted on the Lebanese civilian population by Israel."
"All Israel is doing is feeding anger across the Middle East and they won't get peace that way," he added. "The only way they can achieve peace now is to sit down at the negotiating table."
More events have been planned throughout the US and Europe, including an interfaith prayer service in Detroit and a children's candlelit vigil in Tempe, Arizona.
Speaking in Beirut, British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells made the strongest criticism yet of Israel by a British government minister.
"These have not been surgical strikes. It's very, very difficult to understand the kind of military tactics that have been used," he told reporters.
"You know, if they're chasing Hezbollah, then go for Hezbollah. You don't go for the entire Lebanese nation."
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