April 8, 2002	Monday	Muharram 24, 1423

RABAT, April 7: More than a million people flooded the streets of the Moroccan capital on Sunday in support of Palestinians as protest escalated in Muslim countries against the Israeli offensive.

In Lebanon, some 200 young children dressed as suicide bombers with mock explosives strapped round their waists led a rally of 5,000 Palestinian refugees, who threatened to attack embassies and hijack planes if harm came to Yasser Arafat.

Tens of thousands marched through Damascus. Thousands took to the streets of Barcelona, Spain, and 5,000 marched peacefully through Sweden’s second city Gothenburg.

Thousands of Turks also demonstrated against Israel for the third day running.

In Damascus, Syria’s Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam, Parliament Speaker Abdel Kader Kaddury accompanied members of hardline Palestinian factions at the anti-Israel demonstration.

Demonstrators called on their Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud to “open the borders” with Israel to allow fighters to join the Palestinians in their struggle.

At Tyre’s Palestinian refugee camp, south of Beirut, protesters chanted: “If Abu Ammar (Arafat’s nom de guerre) falls a martyr, we will blow up embassies and hijack planes.”

About 350,000 Egyptians, most of them lawyers, staged a pro-Palestinian demonstration, with posters reading: “Tomorrow, the revolution will take place,” and “Jerusalem Will Remain Arab.”

in Turkey demonstrations against Israel were held for the third day running. The largest rally was in Istanbul, where more than 2,000 people turned out.

One banner read: “No to war, fascist Sharon, get out of Palestine.”

In Spain’s second city of Barcelona members of leftist unions and non-government organization staged an anti-Israel protest. In the Swedish city of Gothenburg protesters carried banners reading “Crush Racist Israel”.

In Dhaka, a group of Bangladeshis staged a pro-Palestine protest as the US envoy opened a photographic display on Sept 11.—AFP