Palestinians Rally Against Charlie Hebdo
Thousands of Palestinians rallied in the occupied West Bank on Saturday to protest against the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad in French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
Simultaneous demonstrations were held in the cities of Ramallah and Hebron less than three weeks after Islamist gunmen shot dead 12 people in the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo, which has repeatedly featured cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
The magazine returned to the newsstands the following week with a cartoon of the prophet on its front page.
“France is the mother of terrorism. America is the mother of terrorism,” the protesters chanted. They carried black-and-white banners which read “There is only one God and Mohammad is his messenger.”
The protests were called by the Islamist Tahrir Party, which advocates the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate in Muslim countries.
“We have taken to the streets in order to demand Muslim armies act the way France and the West deserve in response to the repeated offenses against the Prophet, peace be upon him,” said Baher Saleh, a member of the party.
In the wake of the Paris killings, the Western-backed Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, marched in Paris alongside dozens of world leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at a memorial rally for the dead.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
