Those lovely Palestinians turned out across the West Bank and Gaza Strip for violence-glorifying revenge rallies yesterday, burning US and Israeli flags, strutting around with weapons, and screaming for jihad: Palestinians call on Iraqis to rise up against US.

Thousands of Palestinians staged pro-Iraq rallies Friday to mark the first anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, calling on Iraqis to rise up against the United States in a holy war.

Following Friday prayers, thousands of protesters in the West Bank and Gaza Strip burned Israeli and US flags and chanted slogans against US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

In Gaza City, about 2,000 Islamic Jihad supporters, including children holding the militant group’s black flags, chanted “Death to America,” and burned effigies of Bush and Sharon.

“Our message to the world, to our brothers in Iraq, we are fighting against the same enemies, the same occupation, we are fighting in the same battle,” Mohammed al-Hindi, an Islamic Jihad leader, told reporters.

“Our people in Palestine and our brothers in Iraq are slaughtered by the knife, the knife of Bush and Sharon,” he said.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, about 400 Palestinians from various groups marched through the city chanting “Bush and Sharon are terrorists.”

Preachers in Nablus mosques spoke out against the current American military operation in Iraq and called on Iraqis to unite against America.

“The Sunni and the Shiites have united in a Jihad, as they should, against the Americans,” one cleric said. “The Palestinian and Iraqi people will lead the Arabs to victory,” another said.

In Ramallah, some 200 people joined an Islamic Jihad rally to mark what they called the first anniversary of the American occupation of Iraq. Masked gunmen in white and black robes burned Israeli and American flags as the crowd chanted “Bush is the enemy of God,” and “Death to Bush.”

I think the best way to deal with their openly declared enmity is to give them a state!