Pro-Palestinian groups take demonstration to streets of Brussels

Date: 11/04/02

By Khaled Diab and Katleen Maes

THOUSANDS of protesters descended upon Brussels' EU district on Sunday to show solidarity with Palestinians as Israel's military crack-down in the occupied territories in response to suicide bombings raged into its second week.

The largely peaceful demonstration, calling for an immediate Israeli withdrawal from the territories and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, drew from 15,000 to 25,000 participants, depending on who was doing the estimating - police or organisers.

'For the first time, we are seeing major European public support for the Palestinians,' said Rahib Hijazi, a Belgo-Palestinian activist at the march, referring to the large turn out of a broad spectrum of Belgo-Arab and Belgian NGOs, Belgian political parties, as well as European charities, such as Oxfam, 11.11.11 and Pax Christi.

The demonstrators, including parades of singing women and children from Brussels' Moroccan community, marched from the area around the Gare du Nord, along Arts-Loi, stopping off at the US Embassy and ended up at a rally on Place du Luxembourg in front of the European Parliament.

A small group of angry Arab youths defied organisers' appeals to move on and pitched themselves outside the US embassy, which had been cordoned off by riot police, chanting 'Bush, Sharon, assassins'. They burned Israeli and US flags and threw rocks at the building.

Organisers recruited 300 community volunteers to keep order. Police said they were largely satisfied with the demonstration, during which they made no arrests, although six were made for minor offences afterwards.

Thousand of protesters took part in a demonstration in Brussels' EU district on 7 April 2002 to show solidarity with Palestinians as Israel's military crack-down in the occupied territories in response to suicide bombings entered its second week.