 |
| Protester in Rabat burns Israeli flag |
By Chana Ya'ar
Thousands of protesters marched in the Moroccan capital of Rabat on Monday, torching Israeli flags and protesting the presence of diplomat David Saranga. The Israeli official was in town to attend a meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EUROMED) at the Moroccan parliament.
However, he was quietly escorted out a side door of the building for his own safety after the meeting, when protesters stormed the building. He was swiftly placed in a car and taken to the airport under heavy security, Hebrew-language media reported. The country's ruling party had publicly boycotted the meeting, whipping lawmakers and the populace into frenzy of hate.
Israel's leadership has been preparing for the possibility that it may become necessary to evacuate Jewish residents of neighboring Arab nations to safety. The decision has come in the wake of escalating anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment in some of those countries over the course of the past year's Arab Spring uprisings, during which numerous secular governments -- albeit dictatorships -- were replaced with far more Islamist regimes.
In the streets of the Moroccan capital, Palestinian Authority flags were flown by demonstrators who massed around the parliament building for the rally, a lead-up to the Global March to Jerusalem set for this coming Friday.
Some 100,000 protesters participated in the demonstration, according to organizers who are hoping to multiply that number by 10 for the upcoming “Global March to Jerusalem.” Protesters at the rally chanted, “The people want to free Al Aqsa! A million martyrs are going to Jerusalem!”
