Tens of thousands of protesters marched in support of Palestinians on Saturday in major European cities including London, Berlin, Madrid and Paris, as the worst violence in years raged between Israel and militants in Gaza.
In London, several thousand protesters carrying placards reading “Stop Bombing Gaza” and chanting “Free Palestine” converged on Marble Arch, near the British capital’s Hyde Park, to march towards the Israeli embassy.
Organisers claimed as many as 150,000 people had gathered for the London march, one of several across Britain, though London police said they were unable to confirm any figure.
“This time is different,” Palestinian Ambassador Husam Zomlot told the demonstrators.
Simon Makepace, a 61-year-old accountant told AFP he had joined the protests because “the whole world should be doing something about it, including this country”.
He was critical of the United States, which he said was unfairly backing Israel, and urged Washington to “make peace and stop what’s happening”.
“I think it’s the cause that will go from one generation to another generation, until Palestine is free,” she said.
Across North America, in turn, gatherings to show solidarity with Palestinians took place in cities including Boston, Washington, Montreal and Dearborn, Michigan.
They waved Palestinian flags and held placards that read “End Israeli Apartheid” and “Freedom for Gaza.”
“This is not a war, it’s genocide,” they chanted.
“We’re in a situation when the Nakba is continuing in the middle of the 21st century,” she said, referring to the “catastrophe”, a word used by Palestinians to describe Israel’s creation in 1948 when hundreds of thousands fled or were driven out.
The marches came amid the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence since a 2014 war in Gaza.
Thousands marched in Berlin and other German cities following a call by the Samidoun collective.
The protesters shouted “Boycott Israel” and threw paving stones and bottles at the police, leading to several arrests.
On Tuesday, Israeli flags were burnt in front of two synagogues in Bonn and Muenster.
Some threw stones or tried to set up roadblocks with construction barriers, but for the most part police pursued groups across the district while preventing a planned march toward the Place de la Bastille.
“France is the only democratic country to ban these demonstrations,” said a statement from lawyers for the Association of Palestinians in the Paris region.
In Greece, police said around a thousand people marched on the US embassy in Athens. Riot police used water cannon and there were minor scuffles with protesters in front of the embassy, AFP correspondents reported.
“No need to be Muslim to support the Palestinians,” read one placard: “You just need to be a human being.”
Israel is fighting Hamas militants in Gaza while trying to contain an outbreak of internal Jewish-Arab clashes and violence in the West Bank.
That was in response to bloody Israeli police action at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, as well as a crackdown on protests against the planned Israeli expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in annexed east Jerusalem.
Palestinian armed groups have fired at least 2,300 rockets at Israel since, killing 10 people, including a child and a soldier. More than 560 Israelis have been wounded.
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