Israel's air strikes in Gaza have been "deliberately disproportionate" and amount to "collective punishment", said British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, in comments that are in stark contrast with Prime Minister David Cameron’s statements supporting Israel.
"I really do think now the Israeli response appears to be deliberately disproportionate, it is amounting now to a disproportionate form of collective punishment," he told LBC radio station.
Clegg is the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the junior partner in the country's coalition.
"I really would now call on the Israel government to stop. They've proved their point," he said, affirming his belief that Israel has a right to defend itself “in the face of violence.’’
"Regardless of which side you are on in this ancient bloody conflict, no one can feel indifferent to the spectacle of this overcrowded, desperate sliver of land in Gaza, where so many thousands of people are suffering” Clegg said.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators march up from Downing Street towards the Israeli embassy in Kensington during a protest in central London. They held up placards pleading for Israel to end its "attacks on Gaza", and reading ‘’Stop Israeli state terror’’, "Stop the bombing, free Palestine" and "End Israeli apartheid".
The left-wing Stop the War Coalition, one of the organisers of the march, condemned British and American support for Israel as "nothing less than collusion with war crimes".
The British Zionist Federation along with several other Zionist organizations have called for a counter demonstration, a “rally for Israel” to be held near the Israeli Embassy on Sunday afternoon.
According to the Community Trust in Britain(CST), anti-Semitic incidents have doubled over the last few weeks in Britain Mark Gardner, the CST’s director of communications said that the anger in anti-Israel demonstrations “risks getting out of hand.”
Gardner added “we are already seeing examples of intimidation and anti-Semitic abuse from groups of demonstrators. There is no excuse for this, but it comes as no surprise."
In Paris, despite a rare police ban and warnings from French President Francois Hollande, 2,000 people marched hundreds began massing for their march but clashed with police who blocked their route.
The demonstrators threw rocks and bottles at anti-riot squads which responded with tear gas lobbed into the streets.
The ban, which Hollande had said was to preserve "public order" following violence after similar marches, applied only to Paris. Thousands turned out in several other French cities for authorised demonstrations against the ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza.
Last Sunday, pro-Palestinian demonstrators tried to storm two synagogues in Paris, and clashed with Israeli supporters.
In London, demonstrators held up placards pleading for Israel to end its "attacks on Gaza", and reading "Stop the bombing, free Palestine", "Stop Israeli state terror, join the socialists" and "End Israeli apartheid".
The left-wing Stop the War Coalition, one of the organisers of the march, condemned British and American support for Israel as "nothing less than collusion with war crimes".
In Paris, fourteen French police officers were wounded and 38 people were arrested at an unauthorized pro-Palestinian rally Saturday to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza, despite the recent rare ban of such gatherings in France.
"We are all Palestinians" and "Israel killers, Hollande accomplice," shouted the protesters, according to witness accounts. Police fired teargas fired at the protesters, some of who retaliated by hurling rocks at security officers. Two small vans were set on fire, as well as numerous bins, while the streets were littered with broken glass and debris.
France has western Europe’s largest Muslim population – 3 million. Between 500,000 and 600,000 Jews live in the country.
Police banned the march following last Sunday’s attacks against two synagogues in the French capital during a similar gathering.
French President Francois Hollande, during a visit to Niger on Friday, said the march would have been a "risk to public order." "We cannot allow the conflict to be imported into France. We cannot have demonstrators (from opposite sides) facing each other down, with a risk to public order," he said.
In Brussels, calls to “kill the Jews” were heard at a demonstration of a few thousand people in the city center where at the end of the rlly approximately 200 protesters smashed shop windows and parked cars. They also chased people believed to be Jews. An Israeli flag was burned.
The Belgian League Against Anti-Semitism complained that drivers of some public busses in Brussels were holding Palestinian flags.
On Friday night 3,000 protesters demonstrated in Zurich, calling to throw all the Jews into "to the sea."
Anti-Jewish slogans were heard at a pro-Palestinian rally in Berlin on Thursday. The office of the American Jewish Committee in the German capital filed a complaint with police that protesters had chanted "Jew, Jew, cowardly pig, come on out and fight."
In Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan some rallies turned violent and protesters vandalizing property clashed with police forces. Protests also took place in London, Madrid, New York, and Cape Town.