Tens of thousands of anti-Israel protesters flooded the streets in more than a dozen countries on Friday, clashing with police and burning American and Israeli flags in condemnation of the military counteroffensive underway in Gaza.
The protests were part of a so-called “day of jihad” demanded by former Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, who urged Arabs and Muslims around the world to “convey a message of anger that we stand with Palestine” after weekly prayers.
Meshaal, who led the Islamist militant group from 2004 to 2017, currently serves as head of Hamas’ diaspora office in Qatar. He called it the “duty” of the governments and people of Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan, Israel’s neighbors, to join the fight.
But street protests spread far beyond the Middle East, with violent demonstrations sometimes breaking out as far away as Japan, Germany and Australia.
Australia
Australia was the scene of several vigils and rallies in support of Israel on Friday, but thousands of protesters also took to the streets in Brisbane, Canberra and Perth to express their opposition to the war.
Protesters waved Palestinian flags, shouted slogans and brandished signs with anti-Israel messages.
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, angry protesters burned American and Israeli flags in the capital city of Dhaka as a large street protest took place.
Many people in the gathered crowd displayed anti-war flags and banners, including an image of President Biden defaced with a Hitler mustache. In one photograph, protesters were seen setting fire to an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Egypt
Protesters in Egypt gathered at the Al-Azhar mosque, the Sunni Muslim world’s main Islamic institution, in support of Friday’s “day of jihad.”
A mass gathering took place at the Egyptian Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo on Friday. The crowd loudly chanted promises to “sacrifice our blood and souls” in the fight against Israel.
France
The French Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, had banned pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the country on Thursday, arguing that they “would probably lead to disturbances in public order.”
But hundreds of protesters ignored the ban on Friday, risking arrest as they gathered in central Paris for a mass demonstration. French police used water and tear gas to disperse the unruly crowds, who lit flares and vandalized monuments in the Place de Republique.
In the days since Hamas’ surprise missile attack on Israel, French police have arrested more than 20 people in dozens of anti-Semitic acts, including the harassment of Jewish schoolchildren, the government said this week.
France was the scene of one of the worst acts of violence so far believed to be linked to the day of jihad. A knife-wielding Chechen refugee, who was on a terrorist watch list in France, fatally stabbed a 57-year-old teacher at his former high school and seriously injured two other people in northern France on Friday after allegedly shouting “Allahu Akbar.”
Germany
A protester, his face stained with blood, is arrested after fighting officers at a protest in Germany.REUTERS Protesters in Berlin clashed with riot police during anti-Israel protests on Friday.REUTERS
Several pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested in Germany on Friday when groups of protesters clashed with police in riot gear trying to control the crowd.
One protester was detained after throwing an officer to the ground, and photos showed another’s face bloodied after confronting police.
India
Indian security forces detained numerous pro-Palestinian protesters at the Jantar Mantar protest site in New Delhi, including a group of student organizers. Large groups of Kashmiri Muslims were seen holding signs and banners while chanting anti-Israel slogans. In one photograph, a woman is seen being dragged by security forces who held her arms while she continued screaming.
Indonesia
Indonesia, home to more than 230 million Muslims, held street demonstrations on Friday on the “day of jihad” declared by former Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.HOTLI SIMANJUNTAK/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
In Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population with 231 million followers, hundreds gathered at protest sites across the country to protest Israel.
At a rally after Friday prayers in Yogyakarta, several Indonesian schoolchildren were seen holding toy machine guns and waving Palestinian flags, their young faces smeared with war paint.
Around 200 people also gathered in front of the National Monument in the capital Jakarta, carrying banners and signs in support of the Palestinians.
Iran
In Iran, one of Israel’s biggest regional rivals, believed to have played a role in Hamas’s execution of last weekend’s surprise attack, burned Israeli and American flags at demonstrations in the capital city of Tehran.
Protesters on the ground could be heard chanting slogans such as “Death to Israel,” “Death to the United States,” and “Palestine will be the conqueror.”
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner who cast doubt on the existence of the Holocaust in a surprising interview on “60 Minutes” last year, warned in a speech that “the people of the world and Palestine will cause problems for them. “
Iraq
A massive demonstration of anti-Israel protesters filled Baghdad’s Tahir Square. AP Iraqi members of al-Mahdi’s army, loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, carried automatic weapons at demonstrations in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad. Getty Images Iraqi protesters burned Several large Israeli flags on the streets of Baghdad during Friday’s “day of jihad.”
Baghdad’s Tahir Square was the scene of a massive anti-Israel protest, where thousands of protesters burned large Israeli flags in the streets, including supporters of influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Japan
Members of Japan’s Muslim community held a demonstration outside the Israeli embassy in central Tokyo, shouting slogans through megaphones and fighting with police.
Jordan
In Jordan, home to more than 2 million Palestinian expatriates, more than 10,000 protesters flocked to the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Friday near the Husseini Grand Mosque to express their opposition to Israel. Riot police forcibly dispersed a crowd of hundreds of people trying to reach a border area with the West Bank.
Lebanon
In Lebanon, thousands of supporters of the locally-based, Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah gathered in Beirut to speak out against Israel.
Naim Qassem, deputy head of the large and heavily armed militia, which has already exchanged fire with Israeli forces since the start of the war, said Hezbollah is “fully prepared” to join Hamas in the war with Israel.
Malaysia
Anti-Israel protesters burned dozens of Israeli flags at a protest in Kuala Lumpur as a large group marched towards the US embassy. Footage from the meeting shows a group of children stepping on a photograph of Netanyahu that was photoshopped to include devil horns and evil red eyes.
Pakistan
Dozens of demonstrations took place across Pakistan on Friday, as protesters took to the streets in cities including Peshawar, Hyderabad and Islamabad, stepping on American and Israeli flags that had been placed in the streets in a show of disrespect.
Several Israeli flags were set on fire as those gathered chanted anti-Israel slogans.
Sri Lanka
In Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, Palestinian supporters waved flags and banners with messages including: “Palestine, you will never walk alone.”
Yemen
Thousands of people demonstrated in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, to condemn Israel and show their support for the Palestinians besieged in Gaza.REUTERS A large crowd took to the streets of Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, to express their opposition to the war between Israel and Hamas.REUTERS
Protesters in Yemen filled the streets of Sanaa, waving fists and Yemeni and Palestinian flags as they proclaimed: “God is the greatest; Death to America; Death to Israel; curse of the Jews; victory for Islam.”
With postal cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn