PARIS, Nov 13 (AFP) - Thousands of people took to the streets of Berlin, Geneva, Paris and Rome Saturday to protest against Israel's construction of a separation barrier and the situation of Palestinians on the occasion of Jerusalem Day.
In the French capital between 2,000 and 6,000 joined a rally called by leftist and aid groups.
The demonstration was "part of an an international campaign against the construction of the wall" annexing Palestinian territory, said Christian Piquet, a leading figure of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR).
Piquet estimated the number of demonstrators at 6,000, while police said 2,000 attended, among them members of Amnesty International, the Communist Party and the environmental Greens party.
"We are demonstrating so there will not be a wall between people and no people between the walls," said the spokesman for the group coordinating Palestine committees, Rachid Abel.
A French Jewish group as well as anti-Zionist Orthodox rabbis, who argue that the existence of the state of Israel is illegal, also attended the protest.
In Berlin about 750 people, according to police estimates, most of them members of the Muslim community, demonstrated against Israeli policies on the occasion of Jerusalem Day.
Veiled women carried pictures of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who died Thursday in Paris and was buried in the West Bank town of Ramallah Friday.
About 50 people took part in a counter-demonstration, calling for action against Islamic extremism, anti-Semitism and racism.
In Rome, several thousand people paid tribute to Arafat and protested against Israel's security barrier in the West Bank.
Protesters carried banners condemning the ""Wall of apartheid".
In Geneva, nearly 300 people took to the streets to protest against what they called Israel's "Wall of Shame" in the West Bank.
No incidents were reported.
A week of coordinated international protests against the barrier, which the Israeli government says is to protect the country against suicide bomb attacks, was first organized in several countries last year.
The week -- November 9-16 -- was chosen to coincide with celebrations marking the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.
Iran's late Ayatollah Khomenei initiated the annual Al-Qods (Arabic for Jerusalem) Day in 1979, to be held on the last Friday of Ramadan, for more radical Muslims around the world to show their solidarity with the Palestinians, who seek Jerusalem as a capital for an independent Palestine.
11/13/2004 18:26 GMT - AFP