Thousands protest Israeli attacks

Protestors hold Lebanese flags and placards as they take part in a march through central London Saturday protesting against Israeli attacks in Lebanon. The Israeli army yesterday sent armoured vehicles into southern Lebanon as it held its grip on a Lebanese village and massed thousands of troops at the border amid fears of a full-scale ground invasion. PHOTO: AFP

Police said around 7,000 people joined the London protest as it snaked from the banks of the Thames to Hyde Park, first in brilliant sunshine and then in torrential rain.

Many carried red and white Lebanese flags and placards condemning "Israeli crimes in Lebanon."

"We are all Hezbollah. Boycott Israel" read one. "Axis of evil: Bush, Blair, Olmert," read another, referring to the political leaders of the United States, Britain and Israel.

"Having seen the devastation on our TV screens in recent days, it's impossible to view the Israeli response as anything other than a gross overreaction said Yasmin Ataullah, spokeswoman for the British Muslim Initiative, one of the groups behind the rally.

Hundreds more protesters took to the streets of Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle and Sheffield.

In the United States, several hundred demonstrators gathered in bright sunshine in downtown Chicago for a rally to protest Israeli military actions in Lebanon and Gaza.

Protesters carried banners proclaiming "The Right to Fight Or The Might to Smite," or "Not with our money, not in our name."

"I'm outraged as an American, I'm outraged as a human being at what is happening to the people of Lebanon," said Dale Lehman, a 60-year-old Jewish resident of Chicago.

Nader Ismail, a computer engineer of Palestinian origin resident in Chicago for a decade, said he had come to protest the "collective punishment inflicted on the Lebanese civilian population by Israel."

"All Israel is doing is feeding anger across the Middle East and they won't get peace that way," he added. "The only way they can achieve peace now is to sit down at the negotiating table."