Tens of Thousands Rally in London to Support Palestinians

Protesters display a large Palestinian flag in Parliament Square after taking part in a 'March For Palestine' in London on October 28, 2023, to call for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP)
Protesters display a large Palestinian flag in Parliament Square after taking part in a 'March For Palestine' in London on October 28, 2023, to call for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP)
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Tens of Thousands Rally in London to Support Palestinians

Protesters display a large Palestinian flag in Parliament Square after taking part in a 'March For Palestine' in London on October 28, 2023, to call for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP)
Protesters display a large Palestinian flag in Parliament Square after taking part in a 'March For Palestine' in London on October 28, 2023, to call for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP)

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters have turned out on London’s streets for a second straight weekend to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.
Fireworks and red and green flares were lit as huge crowds massed Saturday on the banks of the River Thames.
Mohammed Ullah, an engineer, said he was surprised politicians and governments are “not stopping this genocide against the Gaza people.”
“Yes, it was a crime by Hamas. But at the same time, what the Israelis are doing, this is genocide. And these children should not be killed and murdered and they don’t deserve to be treated like this,” Ullah said.
Demonstrations also took place Saturday in Indonesia, Pakistan, France, Italy, Norway and Switzerland.

Hundreds of protesters demanding a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas forced the closure on Friday of Grand Central Terminal, one of New York City's major transit hubs, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said.

Images on social media showed protesters pouring out of the train station and onto 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, and a large crowd being detained by law enforcement.
The group Jewish Voice for Peace, which organized the demonstration, posted a video on Instagram showing police in the station escorting a long line of protesters, who were wearing shirts reading "Cease Fire Now" and "Not In Our Name" with their arms secured behind their backs.
"HUNDREDS OF JEWS AND ALLIES ARE GETTING ARRESTED IN WHAT IS LIKELY THE BIGGEST MASS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE NYC HAS SEEN IN TWO DECADES," the group wrote in the post.



US Deports Iraqi Man at Center of Debate on Refugee Policy

Located in Baghdad's Green Zone, the US embassy is set as home to thousands of American citizens left after the US military completes its withdrawal - Reuters File Photo
Located in Baghdad's Green Zone, the US embassy is set as home to thousands of American citizens left after the US military completes its withdrawal - Reuters File Photo
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US Deports Iraqi Man at Center of Debate on Refugee Policy

Located in Baghdad's Green Zone, the US embassy is set as home to thousands of American citizens left after the US military completes its withdrawal - Reuters File Photo
Located in Baghdad's Green Zone, the US embassy is set as home to thousands of American citizens left after the US military completes its withdrawal - Reuters File Photo

The United States has deported to Rwanda a resettled Iraqi refugee who it long tried to extradite in response to Iraqi government claims that he worked for ISIS, according to a US official and an internal email.

Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, who was granted refugee status in the US in 2014, denied Iraqi charges that he murdered a police officer as an ISIS operative, and a judge found in 2021 that the version of events in the case against him was "not plausible".

But the administrations of Joe Biden and Donald Trump both pursued his removal from the country, accusing him of lying on his refugee application by saying he had not interacted with terrorist groups, Reuters reported.

After the start of his second term in January, Trump launched a sweeping crackdown on immigration and attempted to freeze the US refugee resettlement program.

Ameen was sent to Rwanda earlier this month, according to the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, and the internal email seen by Reuters.

Online news outlet The Handbasket, which broke the news of Ameen's deportation, cited a leaked cable from the US embassy in Kigali as saying that Rwanda had agreed to receive additional third-country nationals under a "new removal program".

Reuters was not able to confirm the contents of the cable or any deal between the United States and Rwanda.

The central African country has positioned itself as a destination country for migrants that Western countries would like to remove.

It signed an agreement with Britain in 2022 to take in thousands of asylum seekers from the UK before the deal was scrapped last year by then newly-elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

After his arrest in 2018 following murder charges in Iraq, Ameen's case was cited by the first Trump administration and some Republicans in Congress as an example of security risks posed by refugees and an argument against resettling them in the US.

A US magistrate judge refused to allow his extradition to Iraq in 2021, saying there was overwhelming evidence Ameen was living as a refugee in Türkiye at the time of the alleged murder, but the US government continued to push for his deportation to a third country.

Human Rights Watch said in 2021 that his treatment showed "a system of arbitrary detention and cruel enforcement."