I was looking forward to the Gaza Winter Games.
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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Gaza attacks spark uproar in Arab countries |
| 2008-12-28 |
| Thousands of angry protesters across the Arab world railed against Israel's deadly attacks on Gaza today, as the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, backed the UN security council's calls for an immediate end to the violence. Demonstrations erupted in countries including Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Iraq and Turkey, with many protesters waving banners demanding a stronger response from Arab nations to the air strikes, which have left at least 280 people dead. Stone-throwing protesters in Hebron, Ramallah and other West Bank towns confronted Israeli troops firing rubber bullets and teargas. A Palestinian medic said a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli fire during an angry demonstration in the West Bank village of Naalin. Miliband said the UK supported "an urgent ceasefire and immediate halt to all violence" and that he and the prime minister, Gordon Brown, were following the developments with "grave concern". A rise in rocket attacks by Hamas and yesterday's "massive loss of life" in Gaza made this a "dangerous moment", Miliband said, adding that the "deteriorating humanitarian situation is deeply disturbing". The US, however, said that Hamas should take the first step to end the violence. "We believe the way forward from here is for rocket attacks against Israel to stop, for all violence to end," said the US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad. In Beirut, a Hamas official spoke to a crowd of about 1,000 people who gathered with Lebanese and Palestinian flags. His speech was met with cries of "death to Israel" from some in the crowd. In the capital of Syria, more than 5,000 people marched towards the central Youssef al-Azmeh square. In Amman, Jordan, around 5,000 lawyers marched to demand the Israeli ambassador's expulsion and the closure of the embassy, and there were also protests outside the Israeli embassy in Turkey. Protesters burned Israeli flags and fired AK-47s in the air at demonstrations across Iraq. "We have been waiting for an action from Arab leaders for almost 60 years," said Jaleel al-Qasus, the Palestinian envoy to Iraq, at a protest in the Baladiyat district of Baghdad. "Our efforts have been in vain." There were also demonstrations in the Iraqi cities of Samarra, Falluja and Mosul, where a suicide bomber killed a teenage boy. The Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a leading opponent of the US in Iraq, backed the demonstrations. "The massacre of innocents in Gaza is proof of what we are saying. All this is happening with backing of the American government and colonial states," he said in a statement. There were also protests in the typically quiet streets of Dubai, where hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Palestinian consulate. In New York, the UN security council avoided apportioning blame in a cautiously worded statement that called for "an immediate halt to all violence". "The members called on the parties to stop immediately all military activities," said the council's current president, Croatia's ambassador, Neven Jurica. He said both sides should address "the serious humanitarian and economic needs in Gaza", stressing "the need for the restoration of calm in full". The call for an end to violence was repeated by leaders across the world. Pope Benedict warned that "the native land of Jesus cannot continue to be witness to so much bloodshed, repeating itself without end," while Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, said through its foreign ministry that Israel's attacks "will prompt new tensions". The secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, said his organisation was shocked by the "unimaginable and unacceptable" air strikes. Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, described Israel's assault as a "crime against humanity". In one of the most aggressive responses, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a religious decree to Muslims, ordering them to defend Palestinians, according to state television. "All Palestinian combatants and all the Islamic world's pious people are obliged to defend the defenceless women, children and people in Gaza in any way possible," Khamenei said in a statement reported on state television. "Whoever is killed in this legitimate defence is considered a martyr." Iran refuses to recognise Israel, which has accused it of supplying Hamas with weapons. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, blamed Hamas, a rival to his Fatah movement, for sparking the Israeli attacks by failing to extend the Egyptian-brokered truce that came to an end last week. "We talked to them [Hamas] and we told them, 'Please, we ask you, do not end the truce. Let the truce continue and not stop,' so that we could have avoided what happened," he said in Cairo after talks with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. The US president-elect Barack Obama made no statement. His spokeswoman Brooke Anderson told the New York Times Obama had spoken about events with the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, but that "there is one president at a time". |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #7 The IAF destroyed the Olympic Commission Headquarters in Gaza.
I was looking forward to the Gaza Winter Games. |
| Posted by: Poison Reverse 2008-12-28 20:42 |
| #6 Arab league hasn't even met yet. Egypt and KSA not too fond of Hamas these days. Tzahal probably has at least 7 days to work before pressure to let up builds. And sending in humanitarian aid at the same time as the attacks is a very nice touch, to take the winds out of the left's sails. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2008-12-28 20:32 |
| #5 A cool name only gets you so far d00d! Tarzan ain't nothing but Hounddawg Leroy 4769 in deh disguise. |
| Posted by: .5MT 2008-12-28 20:03 |
| #4 OMFG! Am UpRoar? Damn, no one said nothing about a damn uproar. Halp! The Arab Street is COme alive! |
| Posted by: Tarzan Shoter9830 2008-12-28 20:00 |
| #3 Thousands of angry protesters across the Arab world That should be more accurate. |
| Posted by: Baba Tutu 2008-12-28 17:52 |
| #2 "We have been waiting for an action from Arab leaders for almost 60 years" Funny, I have the same thought about Daisy and Donald Duck. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-12-28 16:29 |
| #1 seething meter is reading "meh", we've seen better protests and riots over friggin cartoons. Sorry Paleos, nobody loves you |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-12-28 15:45 |