GAZA CITY: Thousands of Hamas supporters took to the streets of Gaza yesterday to protest at President George W Bush’s visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, calling him the “butcher of the world”.
“Before leaving the White House Bush, the butcher of the world, a criminal, is presenting himself before us to try and improve his image,” Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas parliamentarian, told the crowds.
Angry protesters burned American and Israeli flags and effigies of Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, including a portrait of Bush with the caption “War Criminal Go Home”.
Many demonstrators hoisted the green flags of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), while others held aloft pictures of Bush with blood dripping from his mouth.
Many demonstrators hoisted the green flags of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), while others held aloft pictures of Bush with blood dripping from his mouth.
“We say as we burn the American flag that the Bush visit is rejected by the Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic world,” Masri said.
“What is this but the visit of one who has become ensnared in Iraq and Afghanistan and wants at the end of his political life to produce honours for himself at the expense of our people,” he said.
Bush began his landmark Middle East tour in Israel in a bid to foster negotiations and try to secure a peace deal before his term in office ends in January 2009.
Israel and the West consider Hamas a terror organisation and have sought to isolate the territory with a strict sanctions regime.
Bush began his landmark Middle East tour in Israel in a bid to foster negotiations and try to secure a peace deal before his term in office ends in January 2009.
Israel and the West consider Hamas a terror organisation and have sought to isolate the territory with a strict sanctions regime.
At the same time Bush has tried to bolster the rule of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas — whose security forces were driven out of Gaza — by reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Today Bush will travel to Abbas’s headquarters in Ramallah, where thousands of security forces will impose a virtual curfew for his protection.
Today Bush will travel to Abbas’s headquarters in Ramallah, where thousands of security forces will impose a virtual curfew for his protection.
“If it were allowed the people of the West Bank and Hamas would express their rejection of this visit by sending thousands to fill the streets of Ramallah to say no to America and no to Israel,” Masri said.
“The Palestinian people cannot be bought with political capital and will not sell Jerusalem... or the refugees, for American money. Our people, Bush, will never abandon our rights and principles,” he added. - AFP
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http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=194803&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17
1 comment:
Wow those pictures of a grinning Gerbil drinking blood, blood all over his face, that's pretty much what most of the Middle East sees him as.....the next administration has a lot of foreign relations work ahead of itself. The sentiment seems to be the Gerbil's visit is a waste of time. And now he said he will be back in May.
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