20100606
Reuters

Thousands of Moroccans marched through Rabat on Sunday to protest against an Israeli raid on aid ship bound for Gaza, waving Turkish flags and chanting "Death to Israel, enemy of the peoples and warmonger".

"Islamic greeting to the Turkish martyrs," the protesters, most of them Islamists, shouted.

Nine Turkish men were killed on Monday when Israeli commandos intercepted the Mavi Marmara, part of a six-vessel convoy carrying mostly Turkish, pro-Palestinian activists trying to break an Israeli blockade on Gaza.

The ship was also carrying activists from Britain, Germany, Malaysia, Belgium, Ireland and elsewhere. Dozens of people were wounded.

On Saturday, the Israeli navy boarded without incident another aid ship trying to reach Gaza, the Rachel Corrie.

The Moroccan protesters waved Turkish flags in a sign of the increasing profile of Prime Minister Tayyip Erodgan among Arabs since he clashed with Israeli President Shimon Peres over Gaza during a panel discussion in Switzerland last year.

They demanded that Arab government allow pro-Palestinian activists across the Arab world to flood the Mediterranean sea with aid ships to try to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

"Arab governments! Zero. Morocco government! Zero," the demonstrators repeated, in reference to what they saw as a failure of Arab governments to help Palestinians end the blockade against Gaza.

The protest was organised by a coalition of Islamist groups and other pro-Palestinian activists who said they had gathered the signatures of hundreds of volunteers to take part in a convoy of aid ships they plan to send to Gaza in defiance of the blockade in the coming weeks.

"The demonstrators numbered several thousands," a senior police official at the scene told Reuters. No incident or arrests were reported during the peaceful protest.