Hundreds of thousands of South African demonstrators marched through Cape Town on August 9 to protest against Israel’s military assault on Palestinians in Gaza, Morning Star Online said the next day.

Organisers said it was one of the biggest rallies in the city since the end of apartheid.

Demonstrators carried posters stating “Israel is an apartheid state” and “Stop Israeli murder.”

Organisers pointed to the footage of the event and said that the number in attendence was as high as 200,000.

Chanting “Free Palestine” — with some demonstrators wearing T-shirts reading “Africa understands colonialism” — the protesters marched through the centre of the city to the national parliament.

The march was called by the National Coalition for Palestine, which groups more than 30 religious and civil society organisations, trade unions and political parties.

And the South Africans were not alone. Across the world, countless thousands more people demonstrated against Israeli brutality in places as far afield as Yemen, Iceland, the US, Chile, Argentina, Australia, Germany and Malaysia. Yet more marched through central Paris in defiance of a ban imposed by French authorities.

Even in Israel itself around 500 anti-war activists flooded Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square with disregard for a ban, which was put in place ostensibly to stop large gatherings during a time when missiles are being fired.

Protesters chanted slogans such as “Funds to welfare not to war,” “Build more classrooms not more bombs” and “In Gaza and Sderot children want to live.”

And in the heart of Israel’s major ally the US, people marched in cities across the nation.

In Britain, the nation's largest-ever pro-Palestine demonstration took place in London on August 9. Stop the War Coalition said about 150,000 people marching 150,000 marched from BBC Broadcasting House to Hyde Park, passing the US Embassy on the way.

Stop the War Coalition said: "So many people turned up that when the front of the march reached Hyde Park, the back still had not left the BBC.

"We marched to demand an end to Israel's barbaric assault on Gaza, to call on the British government to implement an immediate embargo on arms sales to Israel, and to show Palestinians facing Israel's war crimes that they are not alone."

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