Nearly 100 Cities Hold Palestinian Solidarity

New York, MINA – Tens of thousands of people from nearly 100 cities have participated in protests in solidarity with Palestinians this week.

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in cities around the world, from New York and London to Cape Town and Auckland, demanding an end to deadly Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip, AlJazeera reported on Monday.

The Israeli bombings on Gaza come after weeks of mounting tensions over the looming forced expulsion of Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem that Jewish settlers have been trying to expel them from for decades.

The situation escalated when Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City – the third-holiest site in Islam – and wounded hundreds of Palestinian worshippers during several days of violence.

Protests broke out across the occupied territories and inside Israel. The Palestinian faction, Hamas, which governs Gaza, launched rockets towards Israel, after it missed a deadline to remove its forces from the mosque compound.

The map and list below show the locations where sizeable protests have occurred. More protests are planned throughout the week in several cities worldwide.

Cities where protests have taken place:
Al Aqabah; Algiers; Amman; Ankara; Athens; Auckland; Baghdad; Basrah; Beirut; Benslimane; Bergen; Berlin; Birmingham; Boston; Bradford; Brighton; Bristol; Brooklyn; Brussels; Calgary; Cape Town; Casablanca; Chicago; Christchurch; Copenhagen; Cork; Daraa; Dearborn; Dhaka; Diwaniyah; Doha; Dublin; Dunedin; Edinburgh; Edmonton; Frankfort; Galway; Glasgow; Halifax; Hamburg; Hamilton; Irbid; Istanbul; Jacksonville; Johannesburg; Kampala; Karachi; Kashmir; Kensington; Khartoum; Krakow; Kuwait; Leipzig; London, Canada; London, UK; Los Angeles; Madrid; Mahdia; Manchester; Manhattan; Marrakesh; Melbourne; Michigan; Milan; Milwaukee; Mogadishu; Montreal; Nabatieh; Nairobi; Nelson; New York; Nicosia; Norwich; Oslo; Ottawa; Palmerston; Paris; Peshawar; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Pristina; Rabat; Raleigh; Rome; San Jose; Sandton; Saskatoon; Sao Paulo; Srinagar; Sydney; St. John’s; Stuttgart; Tehran; Tokyo; Toronto; Tripoli; Tunis; Vancouver; Vienna; Warsaw; Waterloo; Washington; Wellington; Whanganui.

Previously, in Indonesia also held a solidarity action for Palestine at the end of Ramadan which coincided on Monday, a humanitarian organization concerned with the struggle of the Palestinian people and the liberation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Aqsa Working Group (AWG) organized a solidarity action and concern for the Palestinian people and the Al-Aqsa Mosque simultaneously throughout Indonesia.

The chairman of the AWG Presidium, Anshorullah explained, the peaceful demonstration was carried out while sharing free takjil simultaneously at 30 points in major cities throughout Indonesia on Monday afternoon. The locations for this simultaneous peaceful action are spread from the eastern tip, Ternate to the regions of East Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Java and Sumatra. (T/R6/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)