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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Posted on 01/20/2003 10:29:50 PM PST by Pokey78
Adding their voices to those of protesters around the world, thousands of people marched the streets of Beirut on Saturday, stating their rejection of a war on Iraq and demanding justice in Palestine.
The worldwide event was organized to commemorate the first US war against Iraq with a popular international movement aimed at trying to prevent another military confrontation.
“From San Francisco to Washington, from Marrakesh to Bahrain, people are crying out in one voice the same slogans: ‘No war on Iraq,’ ‘Justice for Palestine’,” British MP George Galloway said to the demonstrators, who crowded Riad Solh Square and the area facing UN House.
“These protests (prove) Iraq has millions of friends around the world,” Galloway added.
Galloway, who arrived in Lebanon on Friday, used his charisma and Arab popularity to impress upon his audience “the critical nature of this period.”
He said he hoped that street demonstrations, especially in the Arab world, would help rescue the region from an American- and British-sponsored “political earthquake.” Of all the demonstrations that took place on Saturday, Galloway chose to participate in the Lebanese one, as he believed that the country would be in a precarious position if a war against Iraq did occur.
“It is very important to raise the awareness of the Lebanese, because when the Americans are through with Iraq, Syria will be next, which means that Lebanon will be over and done with by then,” the British MP told The Daily Star upon his arrival at the airport.
Galloway also predicted that the Beirut demonstration would be the precursor of a huge movement that may halt the war, adding that if “they don’t demonstrate, Arabs will all sleepwalk into disaster.”
“If this war occurs, the gates of hell will open and the United Nations, in front of which we stand today, should be held completely responsible,” Galloway warned. “The United Nations should be clear about this,” the legislator said. “If the United States and Great Britain begin a carpet bombardment of the cities of Iraq followed by 350,000 Western soldiers invading, killing and occupying, the whole Middle East will erupt like a volcano.”
The British MP predicted that Arabs would not sit quietly by their television screens watching Iraqi men and women getting killed.
“From Marrakesh to Bahrain, Arabs will be full of rage and will overthrow regimes, but not those the United States wants to see changed,” he said.
The MP encouraged Arab people and leaders to keep stepping up their rejection of the war, telling them not to mistakenly assume that war on Iraq is inevitable.
“This war is not inevitable, wars are never inevitable, even if they start it is not inevitable that they continue,” he said. “Now is the time for Arab leaders to say unequivocally that not one square meter of their land will be used to invade another Arab country.”
He asked Arabs to make Western countries understand that if Iraq is attacked, oil producers will cease pumping oil and “the Arab public will stop buying American and British products.”
“The invaders must be told that they will pay a price for their barbarism,” he said.
“Victory to the intifada,” were Galloway’s last words from Riad Solh Square. He left Sunday to start preparing for another English demonstration against the war, promising to bring a million people to the streets of London on Feb. 15.
Galloway also met with President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Before departing, Galloway, who has participated in previous Arab protests in Casablanca and Cairo, expressed deep satisfaction with the turnout in Beirut and described the street event as better than the one that took place in Egypt.
Oh, my, my, my.......he must have read, "Terrorism for Dummies" the night before his speech.
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