Palestinian anger spilled onto the streets of Sydney Sunday as a group of some 20 men broke from a 2,500-strong crowd of protesters and tried to storm the United States consulate.
But New South Wales police, who formed a cordon around the consulate in the heart of Sydney's central business district, managed to force them back.
The protest was organized by an umbrella group of local Palestinian, Arab and Muslim organizations in response to continued violence in the Middle East.
Sections of the crowd chanted slogans calling for a pan-Arab jihad, or holy war, to push the Israelis out of disputed lands.
Muslim clerics at the demonstration called for regaining control of the site of the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, to which Jews also lay claim as the Temple Mount.
One demonstrator, Houssam Dernaika, who had earlier helped ease tensions among younger protesters, told AFP the Palestinians were in the same situation as the Jewish diaspora was in the past.
"The Arab world sees Palestinians have become refugees as the Israelis were once refugees, but they will not accept the fact they have occupied land which should not be theirs," he said.
Despite appeals from their leaders for calm, a group of about 50 protesters set fire to Israeli and US flags.
One of them brandished a burning poster of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
Some children carried placards of Barak caricatured as a pig with blood dripping fom his mouth.
Police were joined by the demonstrators' own unofficial security detachment in halting attempts to reach the consulate.
Community leaders later told AFP of their dismay that their appeals for order were ignored by a "small" section of the crowd.
Chants of "Free, Free Palestine" and "God is Great", drowned out several speakers including an Australian member of parliament.
Rami Meo, a spokesman for the Council of Australian Palestinians, was among community leaders who sought to restore order in front of the consulate.
He told AFP the burning of the Israeli Star of David and the US flags was the only way in which a dispossessed people could express their anger without resorting to violence.
"My assessment of today's event is that the Arab as well as the Palestinian communities have expressed their support and anger at what has been happening in Palestine," said Meo.
"What makes the situation particularly frustrating is that we can do nothing about what has happened in Palestine.
"But this is a very diverse gathering, we have a number of Asian Muslims, flags from Tunisia as well as Arabs from other countries."
Meo said he was disappointed by the behavior of radical sections of the crowd, which marred a previously peaceful demonstration.
"But anger has to be let out. It's a basic human need," he said.
"One of the means of relieving that anger is burning the flags."
Asked how he would respond to Jewish claims to land and sacred sites in Israel, Meo said "yes, we may appear the same".
"But the difference between us is that (my homeland) is under occupation, whereas he is an occupier."
A police spokesman said no arrests were made.
"We estimated the crowd was between 2,000 and 2,500," he said.
"We were very impressed that the organizers were able to control and defuse the situation," the spokesman said -- SYDNEY (AFP)
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