Left-Wingers Burn Israeli Flags Near U.S. Embassy
“Free Palestine” and “‘No’ to an American embassy in Lebanon,” the protestors chanted about two kilometers away from the embassy, under the watchful eyes of Lebanese soldiers.
The demonstrators, supporters of the Communist Party and the Democratic Youth Movement, carried Lebanese, Palestinian and Turkish flags, and placards denouncing the Jewish state.
Protests have erupted worldwide since Israeli naval commandos stormed a Turkish-led multi-national aid flotilla headed for Gaza in defiance of an Israeli blockade, killing nine activists on board.
On Saturday, Israeli forces stopped the Rachel Corrie, another aid ship headed for Gaza from Ireland, but there was no repetition of the earlier violence.
“Born in the USA, murdered for Palestine,” said a placard carried by a demonstrator, an apparent reference to Rachel Corrie, an American activist crushed by Israeli bulldozers in 2003 as she tried to stop the destruction of Palestinian homes.
Demonstrators also carried the dead activist’s photographs, and an Israeli flag symbolically splattered with drops of blood. They set ablaze two Israeli flags and a wooden replica of the Jewish state’s emblem, the star of David.
Some of the demonstrators removed a line of barbed wire separating them from the soldiers, before being warned to stop and move back.
On Saturday, two pro-Palestinian non-governmental organizations in Lebanon launched a campaign for funds to buy a boat to sail for Gaza next week with dozens of Arab and foreign journalists on board.(AFP-Naharnet)
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