LONDON (AFP) — Protestors rallied outside Egypt's embassy in London on Friday, urging Cairo to open its border with Gaza, in the latest in a week of demonstrations here over the Israeli military clampdown.
The demonstration came as a group of artists and writers including singer Annie Lennox threw their weight behind a call for a stop to Israel's bombing of Gaza, notably urging US president-elect Barack Obama to speak out.
More than 100 protestors gathered outside the Egyptian embassy in central London, accusing Cairo of siding with Israel.
"Egypt has to say this is our border and we can open it," said Betty Hunter, general secretary of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, referring to the divided border town of Rafah.
"It would allow humanitarian aid in and it would also allow the sick and the injured to come out and they could go to hospital. Egypt has to stop colluding with Israel and do this now," she added.
Meanwhile in Birmingham more than 300 people gathered in the city centre to protest against Israel's action, holding candles as a symbol of support for Palestinians, organisers said.
The week of protests was due to climax Saturday in a demonstration including a symbolic shoe protest outside Downing Street, backed by former London mayor Ken Livingstone, singer Lennox and rights activist Bianca Jagger.
"I would like to make an appeal to President-elect Obama to speak up," Jagger said Friday.
"People throughout the world were hopeful when he was elected and we must appeal to him to ask for the immediate cessation of the bombardment of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip."
Obama has kept a low profile on the Gaza conflict ahead of his inauguration on January 20, stressing that there is only one president at a time.
Saturday's rally will march past Downing Street, where protestors will leave old shoes for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in the spirit of an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W. Bush.
Livingstone, who was ousted as London mayor in May, said that in the last few days there has been a ratio of 100 Palestinian deaths per Israeli killed in the Gaza conflict, in its seventh day Friday.
"There is no sense that that can be proportionate," he said, calling Israel "a state built on ethnic cleansing," referring to its creation in May 1948, after which some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled.
Former Eurythmics star Lennox added: "A few days after Christmas I came downstairs, put the television on, and saw smoke pyres coming from buildings and I was shocked to the core.
"Because I was thinking as a mother and as a human being, how was this going to be the solution to peace?"
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