Palestinians attempt to storm US consulate in Sydney Agencies (Sydney, October 15)

PALESTINIAN ANGER spilled onto the streets of Sydney as pro-Palestinian demonstrators burned US and Israeli flags, accusing Israel of fomenting the latest outbreak of violence in the West Asia.

A group of some 20 men later broke from a 2,500-strong crowd of protesters and tried to storm the United States consulate. But New South Wales police, who formed a cordon around the consulate managed to force them back.

The protest was organised by an umbrella group of local Palestinian, Arab and Muslim organisations in response to continued violence in the Middle East. Sections of the crowd chanted Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) and Down with Israel, and called for a pan-Arab jihad, or holy war, to push the Israelis out of disputed lands.

Muslim clerics at the demonstration called for regaining control of the site of the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, to which Jews also lay claim as the temple mount. One demonstrator said the Palestinians were in the same situation as the Jewish diaspora was in the past. Another protesters brandished a burning poster of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Some children carried placards of Barak caricatured as a pig with blood dripping from his mouth.

The crowd included many people from Sydneys Palestinian and Lebanese origin communities. There were no reports of injuries or arrests.

Meanwhile, preparations were under way in Cairo for an emergency West Asia crisis summit set for tomorrow between Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak aimed at securing a ceasefire and restarting the peace process.

Israeli and Palestinians negotiators also both expressed only modest hopes for the sessions outcome.

The Israeli PM Ehud Barak has said that the tripartite middle east summit is aimed at putting an end to violence and terrorist activities and not just a work towards resumption of peace talks

http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/161000/detFOR01.asp

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 16, 2000