(London) In London, Paris, Rome, Caracas and even Cape Town, thousands of people demonstrated their support for the Palestinians in Gaza, but also in Lebanon, almost a year after the killings of October 7 and the start of Israel’s devastating war of retaliation against Hamas.
Waving Palestinian and Lebanese flags, several thousand demonstrators set out in central London at the end of the morning, with former Labor leader Jérémy Corbyn (now independent) and former Scottish Prime Minister Humza Yousaf in the lead. procession.
“Free, free Palestine” or “Stop bombing hospitals” were among the most popular slogans chanted by the demonstrators, who marched peacefully.
“How many more innocent Palestinians or Lebanese must die? asked Sophia Thomson, 27, who was demonstrating with friends.
A demonstration in memory of the 1,205 people killed during the unprecedented Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7 is to be held in London on Sunday.
During the offensive carried out in response by Israel, at least 41,825 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to data from the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN.
In Lebanon, where Hezbollah opened a front in support of Hamas, more than 2,000 people have been killed since October 2023, according to the authorities.
PHOTO JUSTIN TALLIS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators take part in a march in London on October 5.
In Dublin, several hundred people demonstrated their support for the Gazouis, shouting “freedom and justice for the Palestinians”, AFP noted.
In Berlin, a pro-Palestinian demonstration brought together more than a thousand people and another pro-Israeli one brought together around 650, according to police.
PHOTO YARA NARDI, REUTERS
Protesters throw objects during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Rome on October 5.
Outside the procession of this latest demonstration, 26 people who had addressed the demonstrators were arrested, a police spokesperson told AFP.
“Far too late”
In Rome, clashes broke out between pro-Palestinian young people and the police, with bottle throwing, firecrackers, tear gas and the use of water cannons, after a demonstration bringing together thousands of people.
“Italy must stop selling and sending weapons to Israel”, “Free Palestine” and “Israel a criminal state”, the demonstrators shouted.
In France, several thousand people marched in Paris and several other cities to mark their “solidarity with the Palestinian and Lebanese people” and ask the French government to act more.
In Paris, under a radiant sun, 5,000 demonstrators, according to the police, marched shouting “Palestine will live, Palestine will win”. At the head of the procession, several political figures from the radical left, notably the representative of La France Insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke out in the afternoon in favor of stopping deliveries to Israel of weapons used in Gaza.
But for Mohammed Ghili, 52, member of the Palestine Solidarity association, if “it’s good news, it comes much too late” in the face of what he calls “genocide”.
In the crowd, Maya, 37, a Franco-Lebanese physics researcher who arrived from Beirut a week ago, said she was “stunned by the media treatment” of the escalation in Lebanon. “We don’t hear about the bombing of civilians”
Several hundred people also marched in Lyon (south-east), Toulouse (south-west), Nantes (west) and Strasbourg (east), AFP journalists noted.
“Iran, strike Tel Aviv”
In Basel, Switzerland, thousands of people gathered in a park near the train station at the call of the Swiss-Palestine Federation and around 100 organizations.
In Madrid, 5,000 people, according to the authorities, demonstrated at the call of the Solidarity Network against the Occupation of Palestine (RESCOP), with signs “Boycott Israel” or “Humanity is dead in Gaza”.
The demonstrators called on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who in recent months has increased his critical positions towards Israel, to break diplomatic relations with this country.
In Venezuela, hundreds of supporters of Nicolas Maduro’s government and members of the Arab community demonstrated in front of the UN headquarters in Caracas.
Carrying a 25-meter-long Palestinian flag and shouting “Long live free Palestine” or “Iran, Iran, strike Tel Aviv,” the Chavistas delivered a document to the UN calling for an end to the “genocide” of the Palestinian people and to “concrete actions” against Israel.
In South Africa, in central Cape Town, hundreds of people demonstrated, waving Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Israeli slogans.
Brandishing signs accusing Israel of genocide and racism, the demonstrators – many of whom wore keffiyehs, the symbol of the Palestinian struggle against Israel – headed towards the South African Parliament.
“Israel is a racist state” and “We are all Palestinians,” protesters chanted.
Some of them indicated that they supported South Africa’s complaint to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Pretoria maintains that the Israeli offensive in Gaza violates the 1948 UN convention on genocide.
Many South Africans compare Israel’s stance toward the Palestinians to apartheid, the segregationist regime imposed by the country’s white minority until the country’s first multiracial elections in 1994.