Colombians demonstrate in solidarity with Palestinians and against Israeli attack on Gaza

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The march had been scheduled to begin at 11:00 on Tuesday morning. Gradually, more people came to the Palestinian embassy in Bogotá. At noon, around 150 demonstrators, most of them young people, departed eastwards, in direction to the building where the Israeli embassy to Colombia is located. Of course, some members of the Palestinian community in Colombia joined the demonstration. Mainstream media like teleSUR or Caracol TV, or alternative media as El Turbión covered this event.

Shouting slogans slamming Israel on its bombings and invasion to Gaza Strip in the past few days, some of them overtly anti-Zionist and others expressing support for a possible intifada (you can listen to the audios below), demonstrators walked first eastwards and then southwards, making a pause three blocks before reaching their final destination. Around 12:35, demonstrators gathered in front of the Caxdac building, whose 14th floor is the headquarters of the Israeli embassy in Colombia. There was no explicit support for radical group Hamas, though a small group of demonstrators made a shout using a pun with the Spanish word jamás ("never"), whose pronunciation is nearly identical to "Hamas". Two Israeli "flags" (actually made with cardboard and marker) were burnt.

(In Spanish) "Long live to the fight of the Palestinian people…" / You murderer Zionists!"

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(In Spanish) "We support the fight of the Palestinian people…" / "Israel, Israel, murderers!" / "In-ti-fada, intifada!"

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(In Spanish) Down with the Palestinian genocide!" "Yankees, get out from Palestine, Iraq, and Latin America"

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(In Arabic and Spanish) "With our blood, with our soul, we defend Palestine!"

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The demonstration had practically no incidents, and it was always escorted by the authorities. Nevertheless, when the concentration in front of the Caxdac building was about to end, there were some scuffles between some demonstrators and two Carabineros policemen, which allegedly used their horses to force some people, who were standing in the track of the avenue where cars were circulating, to step up to the median strip of that avenue. The police officers went back the same way they came.

Since the beginning of the so-called "Cast Lead" operation on 27 December, there have been three demonstrations in support of the Palestinian people, including the one held on Tuesday. At the moment we publish this article, the last death toll in Gaza is 660 dead Palestinians, around 3,000 injured, most of them civilians and many of them women and children, while there were 9 casualties on the Israeli side.

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