50,000 Egyptians stage protest amid worldwide fury over Gaza

[DogPoundPup]

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt: More than 50,000 Egyptians rallied after Friday prayers to condemn Israel’s ongoing assault against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in the biggest such protest of the day worldwide.
Legislators affiliated with the opposition Muslim Brotherhood led the protest in the ancient Mediterranean port city that echoed to such slogans as “Down with Israel and with every collaborator.”

The anger was directed not only at the Jewish state, but at Arab regimes deemed to be complicit in the ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza that has stopped refugees from getting out and humanitarian aid from getting in.

“Gaza, excuse us — opening Rafah is not in our hands,” went another slogan, referring to the Gaza-Egyptian border crossing that President Hosni Mubarak’s government in Cairo is refusing to keep open permanently.

A security official put the turnout at 50,000. Riot police were seen by an AFP correspondent in Alexandria trying to prevent the demonstration from taking place — only to give up because of the sheer numbers of protesters.

In the Egyptian capital, riot police foiled demonstrations outside a number of mosques after the ministry of religious affairs instructed imams not to refer to Gaza in their sermons.
“They were warned to stay away from the Hamas topic and not to incite the masses,” the security official said, adding that 35 opposition activists had been arrested in the morning.
In Kuwait, around 3,000 gathered outside parliament and the seat of government, shouting “shame, shame” against Arab inaction vis-a-vis Gaza.

In Jordan, police stopped more than 2,000 demonstrators from reaching the Israeli embassy in the capital Amman. The crowd had set off from Friday prayers at the Kaloti mosque, about 1km away.
The protesters — wearing chequered Palestinian keffiyehs (scarves), and carrying Palestinian and Jordanian flags — chanted “No Israeli embassy on Arab territory” and “Arab rulers are cowards.”
Unable to reach the embassy, protesters instead set up a symbolic cemetery in memory of the nearly 800 killed so far in Gaza, with the word “Gazan” scrawled on each mock grave.
Elsewhere yesterday: .............................

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