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Anti-nuclear Protestors Mass Outside Israel Embassy in Bonn

October 25, 1983
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Hundred of anti-nuclear demonstrators massed outside the heavily guarded Israeli Embassy here yesterday shouting anti-Israel slogans. They were part of a “human chain” that filled the streets around the embassies of all alleged nuclear powers. These included the U.S. and the Soviet Union, China, South Africa, Britain, France, India and Israel.

All of those countries, except South Africa and Israel, have tested nuclear devices and acknowledge their possession. Israel has denied that it has nuclear weapons but is widely believed to have them or to have the capability to manufacture them.

No attempt was made to enter the Israel Embassy grounds in the Bad Godesberg residential neighborhood or to do any damage. Cordons of police guarded the building. Later, several groups of demonstrators marched into Bonn’s Hofgarten singing “Havenu Shalom Aleichem” in Hebrew.

The demonstrations in Bonn were held in the framework of a massive nationwide protest against the planned deployment of U.S. cruise and Pershing 2 missiles in West Germany at the end of this year. Earlier, the American school in Bonn was closed because of an anonymous bomb threat. The school is attended by the children of most Israeli diplomats here.

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