a half-million march in support of Palestinians

[Abdur_Rahman]

WIRE: 08/20/2001 10:58 am ET

In Syria, a half-million march in support of Palestinians; vice president slams Israel
The Associated Press

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) More than half a million Syrians marched in support of the Palestinian uprising, including a prominent Greek-Orthodox leader who said Israel's ways "threaten the future of the whole world," the national news agency reported.
Protesters burned Israeli flags and effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday in the northern city of Aleppo, 220 miles north of the capital of Damascus, the official Syrian Arab News Agency said. The agency said more than 500,000 people attended.

The news agency also carried an interview Sunday in which Syria's vice president was quoted as saying Israel had surpassed Nazi Germany in its evils. In the interview with Saudi newspaper Okaz, Vice President Mohammed Zuhair Masharqah said Israel was to blame for the tension in the Middle East.

Israeli practices against Palestinians are "the most heinous kind of terror," Masharqah said, and had not even been devised by the Nazis and fascists.

"Israel can increase tension, but it cannot stop it. Syria will not stand idle," he said, without elaborating. "Israel does not want peace."

At the march, the Greek-Orthodox archbishop of Aleppo said Christians around the world should show solidarity with the Palestinians.

"Israeli racist policy is based on preventing coexistence, not only in Palestine," Paulus Yazgi said. "(It) threatens the future of the whole world."

The rally was organized by the Aleppo Subcommittee for Supporting the Intefadeh, a semiofficial body comprising representatives of the ruling Baath party, allied parties and the city council.

Israeli warplanes have blasted Syrian military radar stations in neighboring Lebanon twice this year in what Israel said was a response to attacks by Syrian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas against its soldiers near the Lebanese border.

In Damascus, the government has launched a campaign of TV and newspaper ads appealing for donations to support the Palestinian uprising. On Saturday, four cars were sold at an auction for $400,000, which was earmarked for the Palestinians.

Nearly 11 months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting have left more than 570 people dead on the Palestinian side and more than 150 people dead on the Israeli side.


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