Calls for Israel’s destruction were heard in Cairo at the first anti-Israel rally organized by the Muslim Brotherhood since the movement’s candidate was elected president of Egypt.
Several hundred participated in the demonstration on May 10, chanting “the people want destruction of Israel,” the Associated Press reported. The rally was to protest Israeli airstrikes in Syria and the detention of a Muslim cleric.
The rally near Al-Azhar mosque — the centuries-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning — is the first such protest by the Brotherhood since it came to power after the 2011 uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.
Group officials say they are protesting the Israeli detention of a top Palestinian Muslim cleric in Jerusalem in a crackdown that drew condemnation from Palestinians.
The demonstrators were also denouncing Israeli airstrikes in Syria. — jta