Worldwide Marches in Solidarity with France

Tens of thousands of people rallied worldwide in solidarity with France on Sunday, with marchers across Europe and the Middle East chanting "Je suis Charlie" and holding pens in the air.

From Berlin to London and Jerusalem to Beirut, crowds waved French flags and sang the anthem La Marseillaise following the Islamist attacks that killed 17 people.

Christians, Muslims and Jews alike took part in the rallies, held as around 2.5 million people took to the streets in unity marches in France.

In Israel, where four French Jews killed in a Paris supermarket attack will be buried, more than 500 people gathered in Jerusalem in front of a screen reading in French "Jerusalem is Charlie".

"This is an attack on all of us -- on the Jewish people, on freedom of media and expression," Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said. Chief rabbi Shlomo Amar said a prayer for all 17 victims.

Dozens of Palestinians also held a rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah, waving Palestinian and French flags and holding up banners reading "Palestine stands with France against terrorism". 

Hamas-run Gaza paid tribute to the victims during a candlelit vigil in the enclave.

- Europe mourns 'fallen friends' -

In Europe one of the biggest rallies was in Berlin where 18,000 people marched wearing t-shirts saying "Checkpoint Charlie Hebdo" -- a reference to the Cold War-era Checkpoint Charlie in the once-divided German city.

The march comes days after Germany's new anti-Islamic Pegida movement drew 35,000 into the streets of Dresden.

In Brussels, Belgian cartoonist Philippe Gelluck was in a crowd of 20,000, saying he was marching "in honor of my fallen friends" at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

"I know the Muslim community feels wounded and humiliated by these cartoons, but they were not taking aim at Islam but at fundamentalism," he said.

Gunmen killed 12 people in an attack on the magazine, which printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that infuriated some Muslims. A third gunman killed a policewoman and four people at a Paris kosher supermarket.

London's famed Trafalgar Square was filled with around 2,000 people raising pencils to the sky. One person held up a giant paper heart with the message "I Am A British Muslim". Scores of people also rallied in the university city of Oxford.

The British capital experienced its own terror nightmare ten years ago when suicide bombers blew up three underground trains and a bus, killing 52 people on July 7, 2005.

"I hope that now, in these terrible circumstances, everyone will learn to live together, as in societies like England," Romain Abjean, a French teacher who has lived in Britain for ten years, told Agence France-Presse.

In Madrid's Plaza de Sol, hundreds descended on the streets with red, white and blue French flags, and sang the French national anthem.

Hundreds of Muslims also gathered at Madrid's Atocha station, scene of Spain's worst terror attack, the March 11, 2004 train bombings when al-Qaida-inspired bombers killed 191 people.

Veiled women with young children joined groups of young men at the rally, holding up signs that read "I am Muslim and I am not a terrorist".

"We don't want killings carried out in the name of Islam," said Driss Bouzdoudou, 30, who has lived in Spain for 14 years.

- Mideast, Asia rallies -

Elsewhere in Europe, 12,000 people rallied in Vienna and about 3,000 people turned out in driving snow in Stockholm, while some 2,000 people marched in Dublin.

Luxembourg's Grand Duchess Maria Teresa took the rare public step of joining some 2,000 people. In Italy, about 1,000 people gathered in Rome and the same number in Milan, while about 200 people took part in Lisbon.

Meanwhile hundreds of people marched through central Istanbul brandishing pens and flowers, ending up on the steps of the French consulate, and a similar rally took place in Ankara.

But earlier in Istanbul, police arrested two passers-by who shouted "why are you demonstrating for this magazine which insulted the prophet?".

In Beirut, hundreds of Lebanese and French expats held up "Je suis Charlie" signs and pens.

Symbolically, the protesters gathered at Samir Kassir Square, named after the outspoken French-Lebanese journalist who was murdered in 2005.

One protester carried a poster aimed at expressing solidarity not only with France, but also with the suffering of millions of Syrians, whose country has been ravaged by war since 2011. "Je suis Charlie, je suis syrien," read his poster.

Hours before the Paris march, hundreds of people linked arms and held "Je suis Charlie" signs in Australia's Sydney just meters from the scene of a deadly cafe siege last month.

In Tokyo, more than 150 French and Japanese nationals gathered at a French language and culture institute and held a one-minute silent prayer.