Pro-Palestinian protests in European cities

PARIS: Thousands of people marched in support of the Palestinian people and their besieged leader Yasser Arafat in France, Germany and other European countries Saturday, as Israel continued its operations against the Palestinian Authority.

In central Paris around 1,000 people demonstrated in a protest against the "logic of war" of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

In Lyon, France's second city, police said around 5,500 people took part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration. Around 200 protesters marched past the Israeli and US embassies in Stockholm, where a handful of eftwing activists raided shops and destroyed Israeli-imported produce, the TT agency reported.

Around 150 people were meanwhile reported to have turned out for a peaceful demonstration in Oslo, calling for a boycott on Israeli goods.

In the German capital Berlin, around 800 people took part in a pro-Palestinian rally.

In Strasbourg in eastern France, between 2,000 and 3,000 people from France as well as from nearby Germany and Belgium took part in a protest called by the Party of French Muslims (PMF).

Its president, Mohamed Laprecje said: "Our goal is to give our support to the Intifada (the Palestinian uprising), to uplift a people in the face of a colonizing army."

In Marseille, in southern France, a city with a large Muslim population, around 1,600 people demonstrated in favour of "respect for the rights of the Palestinian people."

They shouted slogans against Sharon and US President George W. Bush.

Easter peace marches in Hanover, Munich, Duesseldorf and Stuttgart, with between 250 and 1,000 protesters in each, also had a strong pro-Palestinian element.