Over 10,000 Moroccans protest Gaza deaths, US embassy move
Demonstrators chant ‘Death to Israel,’ a day after Rabat scraps twinning project with Guatemala City over its new Jerusalem mission; protests also held in Kashmir
A mass protest was held on Sunday in Morocco against the relocation of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and against the Jewish state’s policy in Gaza, with more than 10,000 people attending.
Demonstrators chanted “Death to Israel” during the rally in Casablanca, which was organized by four parties, including the powerful Islamist organization al-Adl Wal Ihsan, Reuters reported.
Many protesters carried Palestinian flags and some had signs saying “Al Quds [Jerusalem] Palestine’s eternal capital.”
Others made a display depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shooting a Palestinian protester holding a slingshot, with an IDF soldier and Netanyahu himself being “killed” afterward by the demonstrators.
Thousands of Moroccans protest against US #Jerusalem embassy move
–https://t.co/ydTtvLP48C
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##JerusalemEmbassy #Morocco #UnitedStates #Israel pic.twitter.com/DEEcZZNuHX— A Com News (@AComNews) May 20, 2018
A day earlier, Rabat canceled a planned twinning project with Guatemala City over the central American country moving its embassy to Jerusalem, two days after the US embassy made the step.
“Following Guatemala’s decision to establish an embassy in Al Quds [Jerusalem], Rabat’s city council unanimously decided to suspend the examination of a twinning project with Guatemala City in solidarity with the Palestinian people,” said the Moroccan capital’s deputy mayor Lahcen El Amrani of the Islamist PJD party, according to Reuters.
https://twitter.com/ALQadiPAL/status/998350748768448512
Meanwhile, hundreds of Muslims also protested the Gaza deaths in the Indian province of Kashmir on Friday. Many of them drew comparisons between Israel’s control of the West Bank and blockade over Gaza and the Indian control and security restrictions in Kashmir, similarly viewed by many locals as “occupied.”
Demonstrators held banners reading “Free Palestine” and “Down with America, Down with Israel,” criticizing international “inaction” on the issue, Middle East Eye reported.
Since March 30, tens of thousands of Palestinians have taken part in weekly protests, which Israel says are orchestrated by the ruling Hamas terror group in Gaza and used as cover for attempted attacks and breaches of the border fence.
The new US embassy in Jerusalem was inaugurated last Monday at the new mission building in the capital’s Arnona neighborhood, on a day that saw massive clashes and riots on the Gaza border.
On Saturday, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during Monday’s border clashes had risen to 64, with more than 2,700 wounded in the violence.
Hamas, which openly seeks to destroy Israel, has admitted that 50 of the dead were members of the terror group. Three others were Islamic Jihad members.
The weeks-long campaign of protests against Israel, known collectively as the “March of Return,” were to end last week, but Hamas leaders have said they want them to continue. About 1,000 protesters took part in demonstrations Friday.
The Palestinian deaths during the protests were met with international outrage. On Friday, the UN Human Rights Council ordered an investigation into the killings. Israel said it would not cooperate and slammed the council’s anti-Israel bias, and the US castigated the move as “shameful.”
