Please note that I am updating the bottom of this article with more links to some news updates on the global protests, now numbering well over a hundred thousand people.

I am heartened by the show of protest around the world against the Israeli government’s terrorism and siege of Gaza.  It isn’t just Muslims and Arabs protesting the treatment of Gaza by the government, it is Europeans and Jews, celebrities and Average Joes.

Outspoken British parliamentarian and Press TV presenter George Galloway has been injured while protesting the Israeli attacks on Gaza.   Galloway said during the protest, ”We should treat Israel as we treated South Africa during apartheid. They should be shunned.”

Tens of thousands of Europeans are also protesting openly in the streets of British cities including Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow.  British Police are estimating the crowd in London at 10,000 to 12,000, but organizers of the protests are saying the number was much higher.  The marchers included activist Bianca Jagger, ex-Eurythmics singer Annie Lennox and comedian Alexei Sayle.  Sayle, a Jew, says ”As a Jew, it’s very moving to see so many people who are so outraged at Israel’s actions.  Israel is a democratic country that is behaving like a terrorist organization.”  The British are throwing their shoes by the hundreds, even the thousands, in protest to the treatment of civilians.

Protests in Paris, Amsterdam, Rome and Berlin all drew thousands of people.  In Paris alone, police said 21,000 marched through the streets, shouting “We are all Palestinians” and “Israel assassin.”

The Turkish protests continued for a second day, with over 5000 people walking the streets of downtown Ankara with banners and fists raised in defiance of the attacks.

Thousands of people marched in Amsterdam in The Netherlands criticizing both the Israeli attacks and the Dutch government’s failure to condemn them.  One banner declared: “Anne Frank is turning in her grave. Oh Israel!”

10,000 protestors walked the streets between Duesseldorf and Frankfurt in Germany.  7000 more were in Berlin, braving below zero temperatures to protest along the capital’s main street.

Thousands are marching in Austria, hundreds in Malmo and Uppsala in Sweden, more in Oslo, Norway demanding that Israel should “let Gaza live.”

Athens, Greece counts 5000 protestors.  More protests are being reported in Spain, as well as the Arab nations of Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq and Sudan.

In all, hundreds of thousands are marching against their governments, calling for an end to their support of this soon-to-increase massacre of innocents.  Where is the Old Media in the American Press with this news?  Must it be shoved into the back sections?

More information to be added to this article as it comes in.  If you find any more protests in other countries, please leave a comment in the section below.

 

 

 

Article Updates:

A protest in Chicago is captured in photos at the Chicago Tribune site.  Thank you to the Tribune for covering this protest that even I didn’t hear about.

4:19PM CST: Jewish Comedian Alexei Sayle, to Al-Jazeera: ”I think we should withdraw our ambassador from Tel Aviv, we should call an immediate halt to European Union-Israel trade negotiations, we should start looking at a boycott of Israeli products and a boycott of Israel’s financial services.”

4:49PM CST: The AFP notes that the protest in London may have reached 50,000 people, not 10,000 as the UK politicos mention.  From the same article: ”For every one person killed in Gaza, they are creating 100 suicide bombers. It’s not just about Gaza, it’s about all of us,” she [Annie Lenox] told the BBC.

4:52PM CST: The Voice of America has an article on the protests, focusing on the dozens of violent protestors rather than the tens of thousands of peaceful ones.  From the article: “In Russia, police detained about 37 people for holding an unsanctioned protest outside the Israeli Embassy in Moscow.” Ed: I guess Russia hasn’t changed, not allowing people to protest without State sanction.   Also from the same article: “Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave a briefing outside the White House Friday, sharply rebuking Hamas for what she called holding the people of Gaza ‘hostage.’”  Ed: Except that Hamas was democratically elected, and it is Israel that is blockading the people from leaving.

Update: The Arab League and the United Nations Security Council held emergency meetings on the crisis this week. The Security Council rejected an Arab proposal to pass a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, saying more debate was needed on the issue. Ed: bold-faced done by me.

4:58PM CST: The Canadian Press comments on the Canadian protests: Regardless what they say in this building (House of Commons), regardless what they say in Washington or the Hague, these are war crimes,” shouted Robert Assaly, an Anglican priest from Montreal who was a speaker at the rally.  The group made its way to the Israeli and U.S. embassies in Ottawa, as did a gathering of several thousand people in Toronto who at one point faced off against a smaller group of pro-Israel demonstrators in a downtown public square.

5:06PM CST: More from the AFP: British opposition lawmaker Sarah Teather said Israel’s military response to the firing of Hamas rockets had been “disproportionate”.  ”Anyway, what Israel is doing is counter-productive. No terrorist organisation has ever been bombed into submission,” the Liberal Democrat MP said.

5:34PM CST: Finally a report from Reuters.   Most of the paleo-media (as Lew Rockwell likes to call it) copy and paste Reuters articles to call it “news,” so it should only be a matter of time before the Old Media jumps on the reporting.  The Reuters piece notes more protests in Madrid, Spain, Milan, Italy, Kuwait City, Kuwait, and Sakhnin, Israel.

5:44PM CST: More Canadian coverage from the Windsor Star: Local leaders, activists and politicians, including CAW Local 444 president Rick Laporte, MP Brian Masse (NDP — Windsor West) and city councillors Ron Jones and Caroline Postma, spoke at the rally, offering their condolences to those who’ve lost loved ones in the latest bloodshed.  Jones said he came to the rally not as a representative of city council or the mayor, but as a “brother” of the people in Gaza.  Some protesters held up graphic photos of dead and wounded Palestinian children, while bundled-up kids waved Palestinian and Canadian flags, carrying signs that read: “Gaza kids need toys, not bombs.”

6:06PM CST: KOMONews posts about the Seattle protests, with decent pictures included: A rally kicked off earlier Saturday at Westlake Center, then spread from there as about 2,000 Palestinian supporters marched through downtown Seattle in a planned protest.  ” Free free Palestine, free free Palestine,” marchers chanted. “Fight the power, fight the tide. End Israeli apartheid.”  ”Please keep going until they stop killing our kids,” they chanted.  Then marchers took to the city streets under gray skies, led by a group of children who held signs saying, “Am I your next target?”

6:12PM CST:  KCBS San Francisco covers the San Francisco protest: “We would like it to end with a cease-fire which is something that Hamas has been pleading for… and it’s something that the Israeli government is not open to hearing because they’re not open to talking to Hamas, and I think that’s really part of the big problem,” said East Bay resident Laura Ostrow.  About two hours before the march’s scheduled start, police were already at the scene prepared with barricades and a command post. While the last several demonstrations have not turned violent, wary officers told KCBS’s Tim Ryan they were prepared for the worst.

Related posts:

1. Israeli forces enter Gaza, the new Vietnam War begins?
2. Israeli siege takes toll on Gaza Christians
3. Hamas wins in Gaza against Israel
4. Israel rebuffs call for Gaza truce
5. What do Preterist Christians think of the Israel / Gaza conflict?
6. Israel versus Palestine: What the State fights grows stronger
7. Heroic Jewish-British MP Gerald Kaufman denounces Israel
8. Bush is only stupid, but his old media openly lies
9. Millions attack my wallet yesterday, legally