An estimated 20,000 people demonstrated peacefully in the streets of the Sudanese capital city of Khartoum on Monday against Israel and in support of the Palestinians.
Demonstrators gathered in front of downtown's Republican Palace before marching to the offices of the United Nations, delivering a memo denouncing Israel's recent offensive in the Palestinian territories and UN inaction.
"Jerusalem is for us, not the tyrants", "Sharon, you coward, the Muslim people are in the battlefield", "Down, down USA", and "No to peace, Yes to jihad" (holy war), demonstrators yelled, according to AFP.
Speakers at the demonstration, organized by Sudan's registered political parties including the ruling National Congress, appealed to Arab and Muslim peoples to support the Palestinian resistance of the Israeli occupation.
"A thousand young men from Omdurman Islamic University and another thousand from the Holy Quran University are ready at your disposal," Mohamed Osman Saleh, the university's vice chancellor, told Palestinian ambassador Mahmud Abu Rajai.
Demonstrators, waving banners and beating drums, marched to the United Nations offices where National Congress Secretary General Ibrahim Ahmed Omar handed UN official Thomas Ekval a memorandum addressed to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The memorandum, read to the crowd prior to its delivery, said the United Nations, "was originally planned to establish justice among nations, check the oppressor and support the oppressed but, instead, failed to stop injustice done to the weak, strengthened evil and turned a blind eye to all practices violating the sovereignty of nations."
Sudanese Police stood by observing the demonstration, and there were no reported incidents.
The Arab world has been rocked by protests since Israeli forces occupied the West Bank town of Ramallah last week, with protests turning violent in such countries as Egypt and Jordan. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
