Tens of thousands of anti-Israel protesters flooded the streets of more than a dozen countries on Friday, clashing with police and burning US and Israeli flags to denounce the ongoing military offensive in Gaza.
The protest was part of a so-called “jihad day” called for by former Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, who called on Arabs and Muslims around the world to “convey a message of anger that we are with Palestine” after weekly prayers.
Meshaal – who led the Islamist militant group from 2004 to 2017 – currently serves as the head of the Hamas diaspora office in Qatar. He called it a “duty” for the governments and people of Israel’s neighbors Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan to join the struggle.
But street protests spread far beyond the Middle East, with at times violent demonstrations erupting as far away as Japan, Germany and Australia.
Australia
Australia was the site of several vigils and rallies in support of Israel on Friday, but thousands of protesters also took to the streets in Brisbane, Canberra and Perth to voice their opposition to the war.
Protesters waved Palestinian flags, shouted slogans and waved signs bearing anti-Israel messages.
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, angry protesters burned American and Israeli flags in the capital Dhaka as a major street protest took place.
Many people in the assembled crowd displayed flags and held up anti-war banners, including an image of President Biden defaced with a Hitler mustache. In one photo, protesters are seen burning an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Egypt
Protesters in Egypt gathered at the Al-Azhar mosque, the main Islamic institution of the Sunni Muslim world, to support “jihad day” on Friday.
A massive rally took place at Egypt’s Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo on Friday. The crowd loudly chanted the pledge to “sacrifice our blood and souls” in the fight against Israel.
French
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin banned pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the country on Thursday on the grounds that they were “likely to create a disturbance of public order.”
But hundreds of protesters defied the ban on Friday, risking arrest to gather in central Paris for a mass rally. French police used water and tear gas to disperse the unruly crowd, which lit flares and vandalized monuments in the Place de Republique.
Since Hamas’s surprise missile attack on Israel, French police have arrested more than 20 people in dozens of antisemitic acts, including harassment of Jewish schoolchildren, the government said this week.
France was the site of one of the worst acts of terrorism believed to be linked to the jihad to date. A knife-wielding Chechen refugee – who is on a terrorist watch list in France – fatally stabbed a 57-year-old teacher at his former high school and critically wounded two others in northern France on Friday after allegedly shouting, “Allahu Akbar.”
Germany
A protester, with his face covered in blood, is arrested after clashing with officers at a protest in Germany.REUTERS Demonstrators in Berlin clashed with riot police during an anti-Israel protest on Friday.REUTERS
Several pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested in Germany on Friday as groups of protesters clashed with police in riot gear trying to control the crowd.
One protester was arrested after throwing an officer to the ground, and pictures showed another with blood on his face after an altercation with police.
India
Indian security forces detained scores of pro-Palestinian protesters at the Jantar Mantar protest site in New Delhi, including a group of student organizers. A large group of Kashmiri Muslims were seen holding signs and banners while chanting anti-Israel slogans. In one photo, a woman is seen being dragged away by security forces holding her hand as she continues to scream.
Indonesia
Indonesia, home to more than 230 million Muslims, held street demonstrations on Friday’s “jihad day” declared by former Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. HOTLI SIMANJUNTAK/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
In Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population of 231 million adherents, hundreds gathered at protest sites across the country to protest Israel.
At a demonstration after Friday prayers in Yogyakarta, many Indonesian students were seen holding toy machine guns and waving Palestinian flags, their young faces smeared with war paint.
About 200 people also gathered outside the National Monument in the capital Jakarta, holding banners and holding signs in support of the Palestinians.
Iran
In Iran, one of Israel’s biggest regional rivals – believed to have played a role in Hamas carrying out a surprise attack last weekend – burned Israeli and American flags at a demonstration in the capital Tehran.
Protesters on the ground were heard chanting slogans such as “Death to Israel,” “Death to America” and “Palestine will be the conqueror.”
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner who doubted the existence of the Holocaust in a “60 Minutes” interview last year, warned in a speech that “the people of the world and the Palestinians will create problems for you.”
Iraq
A mass gathering of anti-Israel protesters fills Baghdad’s Tahir Square.AP Members of Iraq’s al-Mahdi army, loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, carry automatic weapons at a demonstration in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood.Getty Images Iraqi protesters are set on fire several large Israeli flags on the streets of Baghdad during “jihad day” on Friday
Tahir Square in Baghdad was the site of massive anti-Israel protests, where thousands of demonstrators burned large Israeli flags in the streets, among them supporters of the influential Iraqi Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr.
Japan
Members of Japan’s Muslim community rallied outside the Israeli Embassy in central Tokyo, shouting slogans through bullhorns and clashing with police.
Jordan
In Jordan, home to more than 2 million Palestinian expatriates, more than 10,000 protesters flocked to the Jordanian capital Amman on Friday near the Husseini Grand Mosque to voice their opposition to Israel. Riot police violently dispersed hundreds of people as they tried to reach the zone bordering the West Bank.
Lebanon
In Lebanon, thousands of supporters of the country’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group gathered in Beirut to speak out against Israel.
Naim Qassem, deputy head of the large and heavily armed militia, which has exchanged fire with Israeli forces since the start of the war, said Hezbollah stands “fully prepared” to join Hamas in a war with Israel.
Malaysia
Anti-Israel protesters set fire to dozens of Israeli flags at a protest in Kuala Lumpur as a large group marched to the US Embassy. Images from the rally show a group of children stomping on a photo of Netanyahu that has been doctored to include devil horns and evil red eyes.
Pakistan
Dozens of demonstrations took place across Pakistan on Friday, as protesters flooded the streets of cities including Peshawar, Hyderabad and Islamabad, trampling on American and Israeli flags that had been placed in the streets as a sign of disrespect.
Several Israeli flags were burned as those gathered chanted anti-Israel slogans.
Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, Palestinian supporters waved flags and held up banners with messages including, “Palestine you will not walk alone.”
Yemen
Thousands of people rallied in Yemen’s capital Sanaa to condemn Israel and show their support for the besieged Palestinians in Gaza.REUTERS A large and vocal crowd took to the streets of Yemen’s capital Sanaa to voice their opposition to Israel’s war- Hamas.REUTERS
Demonstrators in Yemen filled the streets of Sanaa, waving fists and Yemeni and Palestinian flags as they declared, “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; the curse of the Jews; victory to Islam.”
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
