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Iran marks Jerusalem Day
Hundreds of thousands of Iranians protested against Israel here on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, marking the Jerusalem Day initiated by the late Ayatollah Khomeini to support the Palestinians. The demonstrators, including families, ferried in to central Tehran by thousands of buses and private cars, chanted slogans against Israel, the United States and its ally Britain. Effigies of US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon were set ablaze on major avenues around Tehran University. "Death to Israel, Death to Britain, Death to America," chanted the protesters, some of them wearing the black-and-white keffiyeh chequered headscarf of the Palestinians.
It's one of those quaint local traditions...
"We want to make Israel understand that the Palestinians are not alone," said one student, giving her name as Zohreh. Several top Iranian officials, including President Mohammad Khatami, parliament speaker Mehdi Karubi and judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi, took part in the demonstration.
Did Binny and the Doc show? They’re reputed to be official Black Hats these days if one is to believe Mansoor Ijaz ...
The protests were inaugurated by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic republic. Jerusalem Day is supported by both the conservative and reformist movements in Iran. "Israel has no future. Those who are counting on a tumour are wrong. The Islamic world must help so we are able to solve the question of Palestine," influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said. "We are not those who say the Jews should be thrown into the sea, there are Jews who came to Israel to make homes. That is a fact. But every person living in Palestine must have a vote," he added.
Yeah ... right.
Iran does not recognise Israel and advocates the creation of a single multi-faith state comprising Israel and the Palestinian territories, whose rulers would be elected not only by its inhabitants but also the five million Palestinian refugees living across the world. This would give Palestinian voters a clear majority.
I somehow doubt that in the context Rafsanjani’s previous comments on what happens to Israel as soon as Iran gets its hands on nukes ...
At the end of the demonstration, protestors read out a declaration calling on "Palestinian groups to stay united and not to submit themselves to so-called (peace) plans like the ’roadmap’ and follow the course of struggle and jihad (holy war)." The demonstrators’ declaration also called for the setting up of an "international tribunal to judge the Zionist crimes and in particular those of Sharon."
Posted by: Dan Darling 2003-11-22
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=21613