Arab protesters demand response to Gaza

By Aseel Kami and Sabah al-Bazee

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Protesters burned Israeli and U.S. flags on Sunday in a string of Arab countries and demanded a stronger response from their leaders to Israel's attack on Gaza.

"Arab silence is behind the bombings," read a banner held by one of several thousand people who turned out in the Sunni Arab city of Samarra north of Baghdad.

The Israeli raids, some of the worst in 60 years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, incensed many in the Arab world, where many governments are seen by popular Islamist movements as collaborators with the United States or Israel.

"America and the Zionists are the leaders of world terrorism," read a placard held by protesters at the U.N. headquarters in the Lebanese capital Beirut. They demanded U.N. intervention to end the Israeli onslaught.

Similar protests were held in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, home to some 400,000 refugees displaced when Israel was established in 1948.

In Amman, Jordanian deputies burned an Israeli flag during a parliamentary session on Sunday to show solidarity with the Palestinians.

Deputies also demanded the kingdom, the second Arab country to sign a peace agreement with Israel, sever diplomatic ties with its neighbor and expel its ambassador.

In the second day of protests in the Jordanian capital, hundreds of people marched to the Egyptian embassy to demand Cairo throw open its border with Gaza, ending the blockade imposed on the coastal strip for much of the time since Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006.

In the center of the Syrian capital Damascus, thousands of people carrying Palestinian and Syrian flags filled streets around a popular square, chanted anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli slogans and burned an American flag.

"Victory belongs to heroic Gaza," one banner said. "Until when will the Arab silence continue?" read another.

In Baladiyat, a Baghdad district inhabited by many Palestinians given refuge in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, men waved banners and condemned Arab nations for not doing enough to support Palestinians.

"We have been waiting for action from Arab leaders for almost 60 years," Jaleel al-Qasus, the Palestinian envoy to Iraq, said during the protest by several hundred people.

"Our efforts have been in vain."

Scores of protesters tried to approach the Egyptian embassy in Beirut to demand Egypt open up its borders to Gaza, where 1.5 million Palestinians live under Israeli and Egyptian blockade. Police used tear gas to stop the demonstrators approaching.

In Egypt itself, protesters gathered in Cairo and five other towns, security sources said. They burned Israeli flags and carried placards denouncing Israel.