SYRIA/JORDAN: Palestinians in Syria and Jordan protest the ongoing violence and crisis in Gaza

Record ID: 279413

  • Title: SYRIA/JORDAN: Palestinians in Syria and Jordan protest the ongoing violence and crisis in Gaza
  • Date: 21st January 2008
  • Summary: (W3) AMMAN, JORDAN (JANUARY 21, 2008) (REUTERS) ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS CARRYING MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD FLAGS AND BANNERS GATHERED IN FRONT OF THE ISLAMIC ACTION FRONT VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS CARRYING MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD FLAGS AND BANNERS VARIOUS OF WOMAN PROTESTERS CARRYING FLAGS AND CHANTING SLOGANS IN SUPPORT OF GAZA MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AND ISLAMIC ACTION FRONT LEADERS STANDING
  • Embargoed: 5th February 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA7CTJFDTXEGU4LRF765I98XPIJ
  • Story Text: More than 1,000 Jordanians march in Amman to show their anger at Israeli attacks on Gaza and to voice support for Hamas. In Damascus, a spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine accused the Israelis of acting like 'Nazis' towards Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
    More than 1,000 Jordanians belonging to the Muslim opposition marched from the Islamic Action Front headquarters to the parliament in Amman on Monday (January 21) to show their anger at what they said was Israeli aggression towards Gaza.
    The protesters carried Muslim Brotherhood flags and banners and shouted support for the Islamist movement Hamas.
    Jameel Abu Baker, deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood said the march was one of many activities being planned by the Brotherhood and urged the Jordanian government to give them the leeway to express their support to Palestinians in Gaza.

    "The march expresses the great agitation and anger present within Jordanians against this crime, and condemns the international complicity and complacency and the Arab silence," he said.
    Large parts of the Gaza Strip plunged into darkness on Sunday (January 20) when its main power plant shut down after Israel blocked fuel supplies to the Hamas-run territory and closed its borders in response to militant rocket attacks.
    A U.N. agency said on Monday it would have to suspend food distribution to 860,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as early as Wednesday unless Israel eased the border blockade it imposed on the Hamas-controlled territories.
    Other international groups said that Gaza hospitals would run out of drugs and generator fuel in a few days unless Israel allowed goods through border crossings closed on Friday in what Israel said was a bid to make militants stop rocket attacks.
    Separately, dozens of leftists Jordanians belonging to the communist and Baath parties gathered in a sit-in in front of the Professionals' Union to portray their disapproval of Arab complacency.

    "This sit-in is one of the movements and activities by Jordanians against what is happening in Gaza, against the crimes which are taking place with the approval of silent Arab regimes and with the green light from the criminal Bush," Wael Saka, head of the Jordanian Engineers' Union said.
    In Damascus, meanwhile, the Deputy Chief of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine GC condemned the Israeli actions in Gaza as 'Nazism'.

    "It (Israel) is practicing Nazism and holocaust against the Palestinian people. What is the difference between what the Nazis have done against the Jewish in Europe and what the Zionists are doing against the Palestinian people in Palestine? It is worse than what the Nazis have done in the Second World War," Talal Naji told a news conference.
    International organizations said Gaza hospitals will run out of drugs and fuel for generators within a few days unless Israel eases the border blockade it imposed on the Hamas-controlled territory Naji predicted that the Israeli actions would cause a Palestinian uprising in Gaza and the West Bank.
    Palestinian officials have warned Israel's standoff with Gaza militants, who have vowed to continue the rocket fire, could harm U.S.-spurred peace efforts.
    European Union and United Nations officials said the organizations were pressing Israel to allow in fuel and medicine immediately to the Gaza Strip, where 1.5 million people live.
    Despite its tough public line, Israel has not cut off its direct supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip. Egypt also provides power, to the southern part of the territory.
    Voicing his concern, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday to warn him of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) said.
    The Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip has also stopped U.N. aid shipments that include food and other humanitarian supplies.
    But UNRWA, which provides food to refugees, estimated it had two months' worth of supplies stored in Gaza.
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