TEL AVIV (AFP) -- About 3,000 people demonstrated in the heart of Tel Aviv on Saturday against Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

"No to occupation," "Yes to peace," chanted the demonstrators gathered by anti-occupation Israeli groups and Arab Israeli organizations, carrying red, Israeli and Palestinian flags. "Israel-Palestine: two states for two peoples," they also cried. "The occupation is a catastrophe." A number of self-proclaimed Israeli anarchists took part in the rally, dressed as clowns under the banner of "people in the West Bank also have the right to laugh."

In 1967, Israel captured the West Bank and east Beit-ul-Moqaddas from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria and the Gaza Strip from Egypt. The Sinai, which it also seized, was returned to Cairo under a 1979 peace treaty.