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Athens News Agency: News in English, 09-01-03
CONTENTS
[01] Violence at protest demonstration against Israeli attacks on Gaza
[01] Violence at protest demonstration against Israeli attacks on Gaza
A rally was held Saturday evening outside the Israeli embassy in Athens
in protest of the Israeli attacks on Gaza and in solidarity with the
Palestinian people, with the participation of the Coalition of the
Left, Movements and Ecology (SYN) party, the Hellenic Social Forum, and
trade unions, anti-war organizations and Palestinian organizations,
including a delegation of SYRIZA (the SYN-led Coalition of the Radical
Left parliamentary alliance) MPs headed by SYN leader Alexis Tsipras,
and main opposition PASOK party MPs Dinos Rovlias and Sophia Sakorafa.
Scuffles broke out between demonstrators and a strong police continent
outside the embassy, with police obliging the protestors to disperse
and flee down side streets.
The protestors marched along central streets, making stops at Syntagma
Square and the Egyptian embassy, as well as at the US embassy, where
they attempted to break a roadblock set up by the MAT riot police with
MAT vans by throwing rocks in the direction of the police. The MAT
responded with flare and sound grenades and teargas, forcing the
demonstrators to retreat and break up into smaller groups heading in
several directions, which caused traffic chaos on several streets of
Athens.
The protestors set fire to trash bins while, earlier, they burned
Israeli and US flags outside the Israeli and Egyptian embassies.
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