CAIRO: Tens of thousands protested across Europe Saturday against the killing of activists during a botched raid on an aid fleet, as Israel peacefully boarded another ship trying to defy its blockade of Gaza.
Angry protestors chanting anti-Israeli slogans and waving Palestinian and Turkish flags took to the streets of Istanbul, London, Dublin and Paris as well as a string of other French cities, following Monday’s deadly assault.
Demonstrators branded Israel a "murderer", demanded that it lift its blockade and vowed that the deaths of the nine activists would not be in vain.
In Turkey a crowd of around 10,000 gathered at the Caglayan square on the European side of the city straddling the Bosphorus Strait.
"Murderer Israel!" chanted the demonstrators, at times breaking into shouts of "Allahu Akbar!" or "God is great" in English.
"The longer we keep silent, the bigger the massacre grows," read a banner in French while the demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and shouted anti-Israeli slogans.
Many of them wore headbands that read "Murderers Israel, keep your hands off the boats!" in Hebrew and English. The dead activists were all Turkish including one who also had US nationality.
In Dublin, organizers of the Irish march said up to several thousand people had taken part, but police put the figure in the hundreds.
"I think people are incredibly angry that nine peace activists were murdered in an attempt to intimidate people coming to Gaza," said Richard Boyd Barrett, chairman of the Irish Anti-War Movement who was on the march.
In France, over 20,000 people, including 5,000 in Paris, vented their anger at Israel’s handling of the aid flotilla, police said.
Protestors in the French capital, some waving Turkish and Palestinian flags, marched through the centre of the city. The country has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe with between five and six million Muslims.
"What we lived through was very difficult… but it is nothing compared to what the Palestinians are living through 365 days a year. These are a people that are being kept on a drip and its is not acceptable," said Youcef Benberdal who was with the aid convoy.
In the southern city of Nice, around 2,000 people, mostly dressed in white, gathered to pay tribute to the nine victims.
"Gaza, France is with you," said one of the speakers.
Between 2,000 and 5,000 people also gathered in Marseille, while in Lyon organizers said 30,000 people turned out although police put the figure at 6,000.
Hundreds more rallied in other cities including Strasbourg and Bordeaux.
In London several thousand people gathered outside Downing Street, waving flags and placards and chanting loudly.
The protestors urged the British government to step up pressure on Israel and were later due to head to the Israeli embassy in a march that will wind through central London.
Lindsey German of organizers Stop The War Coalition told the crowd the event was to show victims "that their death has not been in vain — what it has done is bring to the world’s attention the terrible crime of the blockade of Gaza."
Demonstrators outside the prime minister’s residence waved Palestinian flags and waved placards saying: "Gaza End The Siege" and "For Freedom We Sail," while others chanted: "Stop Israeli piracy."
Many of those attending were from London’s large Turkish community such as 38-year-old Ali Seylan who said his brother had been on board the flotilla.
"Israel made a big mistake, Israel’s government managed to get all Turkish people (to be) the enemy of Israel," he said.
On Saturday, Israeli forces peacefully boarded another ship, the Rachel Corrie, as it headed for Gaza in defiance of Israel’s blockade.
Since Monday there have been daily demonstrations across Turkey against Israel and in favor of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement which controls Gaza.
On Sunday, Several hundred left-wingers held a demonstration near the US embassy in Lebanon on Sunday, burning Israeli flags and calling for an end to Israel’s blockade of the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
"Free Palestine" and "’No’ to an American embassy in Lebanon," the demonstrators chanted about two kilometers (a mile) away from the US embassy in Awkar, north of Beirut, 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.
"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 Friday, Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Shia group Hezbollah which fought a devastating 2006 war with Israel, called for a second "Freedom Flotilla" for Gaza.
In Morocco, Tens of thousands of Moroccans, including ministers, demonstrated in the capital Rabat Sunday in support of Palestinians and against Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last week.
Demonstrators trampled on an Israeli flag and brandished banners condemning last Monday’s raid in which nine Turkish activists were killed, and also accused Arab nations of "complicity and silence".
Government ministers, heads of political parties, trade unions and political activists, notably Islamists, joined together for the demonstration, which came amid days of similar protests across the world.
They chanted "Everyone against state piracy" and "Lift the embargo on Gaza", and also "thanked" Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has taken a tough stance against Israel after the raid.
Police said more than 35,000 people took part in the demonstration while organizers could not yet give the number of participants.
